PT127.S1.Q3

PrepTest 127 - Section 1 - Question 3

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Teacher: Support Participating in organized competitive athletics may increase a child's strength and coordination. ██ ███████ █████ ████ ████████ ██ ████ ████████ ██ █████ ████████ ███ ███ ███ ███████ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ █ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████ █████ ██████ ███████████ ████ █████ ████████ ███ █████ ████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ████ █████ ████ ██ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ████████ ██████ ███ ██ ███████████

Distilled Argument · Don't Not Fund Sports

Here’s a distilled version of the argument:

  1. Organized sports have an upside. ← The claim we’re asked about.
  2. But organized sports also have a downside.
  3. But that downside has its own upside!
  4. So let’s fund organized sports.

Categorizing our excerpt as mere context would be forgivable given the context indicators “however” and “yet” (although the testwriters have a different take, as we’ll see in (A)). Without the benefit of hindsight, I’d say it’s either context or a clean premise and leave it at that. It certainly isn’t any kind of conclusion, anyway, since it doesn’t depend on the other claims for support.

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3.

Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████ █████████████ ██ █████████ ███████████ █████████ ███ ████████ █ ███████ ████████ ███ █████████████

a

It is mentioned ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ███ ████████ █ ██████ ███ █████ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ██████████ ███████

The policy we’re adopting in (A) is funding organized athletics. I’ll grant that it’s a bit linguistically clumsy to use the word “adopting” to describe not doing something (we’re not eliminating funding), but it’s an allowable use of the term. Upon transitioning from one presidency to another, for example, the United States might adopt a policy of nonintervention in foreign wars. It just means they’re deciding to behave a certain way in a certain situation.

In any event, the first claim presents an upside of organized athletics, which we ultimately want to fund – it’s a possible reason to adopt the policy of funding sports. The teacher also suggests an additional reason to fund sports: the “inferiority” downside of sports comes with the hidden upside of success.

79%
b

It is a █████ ████ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ █████████████████

A few things to say about (B). First is that the teacher is pro-sports. The excerpt presents an upside of organized sports, so the teacher is in no mood to refute it.

Second, no one, the critics included, is attempting to refute the claim directly. The critics bring up additional considerations that are relevant to sports funding, but refuting the claim would mean saying “organized athletics do not increase a child’s strength and coordination.” No one’s making that claim.

4%
c

It is a ██████████ ███ █████ ███ ███████ ██████ ██████████ █████████

Where’s the evidence? I think the closest we get is the research about how adults with inferiority complexes are super successful. But that’s evidence for a different claim. That’s evidence for the idea that sports make people successful, not for the much more specific idea that sports make kids stronger and more coordinated.

9%
d

It is cited ██ ██ ████████████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ████████ █████████

(D) says that our excerpt isn’t a good enough reason to eliminate sports funding, but it’s not a reason to eliminate funding at all. On the contrary, it’s cited as a reason to keep sports funding.

Here’s an analogy. Let’s say your friend is considering dating Brock, but Brock is a virulent racist. You wouldn’t say “that’s an insufficient reason to date Brock,” because it’s actually a reason not to date Brock. An insufficient reason to date Brock would be something like “he has a cute dog.”

5%
e

It is cited ██ ██ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███████████

(E) would be right if we were being asked about the stimulus’ second sentence. Answer choices that accurately describe the wrong excerpt are common in Method Of Reasoning questions, so this pattern is worth a mental note.

3%

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