Self-study
Political scientist: It is not uncommon for a politician to criticize his or her political opponents by claiming that their exposition of their ideas is muddled and incomprehensible. ████ ██████████ ████████ ██ █████ ████████ █████████ ███████ ████████ ██ █ ██████ ████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ██ ████████ ████ ██ █████ ██████████ ██████ █████████ ████████████ ████████ ███████████ ██ ████████
Summarize Argument
A certain criticism by politicians (their opponents’ explanation of their ideas is incomprehensible) is insincere. Why? Because an agenda that can’t be understood by a large number of people won’t be actualized. Why not? Because all politicians know that political mobilization requires common purpose.
Identify Conclusion
The conclusion is the author’s claim about criticizing political opponents for incomprehensible messaging: “Such criticism, however, is never sincere.”
12.
Which one of the following ██ ███ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████████ ████ ███████████
a
People who promote █████████ ███████ ██ ██ ████████████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████████ ██ ██████████
This misrepresents the argument. The political scientist calls the criticism insincere, not those who promote agendas incomprehensibly.
b
Sincere critics of ███ ██████████ ██ █ █████████ ██████ ██████ ███ █████ █████ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ █████ ████ ██████ ██ █████████
There’s no recommendation in this argument, nor does the author discuss sincere critics. Also, the author only claims that criticisms about incomprehensibility are insincere; there could be other valid criticisms on the manner of promotion.
c
The ineffectiveness of █ ███████████ ████████ █████████ ██████ ██ █ ██████ ███ ██████████ █████ ██████ ████ ████████ ███ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ███ █████████ ███
The political scientist simply claims that the criticism is insincere. She doesn’t make claims about reasons to refrain from or engage in the criticism.
d
A politician criticizing ███ ██ ███ █████████ █████████ ███ ██████████ █████ █████████ ███████ ██ ██ ████████████████ ██████ ██ █████ ██████████
This accurately paraphrases the conclusion. This type of criticism is insincere, therefore a politician who engages in it is being insincere.
e
To mobilize large ███████ ██ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ █ █████████ ███████ ████ █████████ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ ██ ████ █ ███ ████ ██ ██████ ██ ██████████████
This is a modified version of the author’s support, i.e. an agenda must be understood by large numbers of people to be realized. (E) has changed this to be “cannot be misunderstood,” which is no longer the same as the author’s support, but (E) would be incorrect either way.