PT1.S3.Q22 - the 1980s have been characterized as

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• 1 Like

  Alex Alum Member ⭐

  July 2017 23929 karma

  @jkatz1488 said:
  Anyone feel like commenting on ACs A and E? Having trouble totally ruling out A.

  Thanks

  So, I just took a quick look at the question, and I got rid of A because I thought the claim was relevant to the argument. simple as that, so not much more to say here.

  (e) Is correct because the argument is indeed shifting what it means when they use "selfish." This is where paying attention to grammar and details can be important. It was either MLSAT or The Trainer (or both?) that discuss that when you see a term used and then a prefix/suffix added you should be wary of term shifting. Here you can see that with selfish vs selfishness. So that was what ultimately had me choose (e).

  I will say that this question was pretty hard. Luckily, I think this trick of adding a new prefix/suffix is not seen much on the newer tests. I can't recall seeing it much after PT36, but I haven't done a lot of the newer tests, so i could be totally wrong. Just something to watch out for when you're doing a flaw question and get stuck. The grammar ...

  Hope this helps a little
• NotMyName Alum Member Sage ⭐

  August 2017 5320 karma

  Yea I see what you mean. "selfish individualism" is a particular kind of individualism... the selfish kind. That is not the same as "selfishness". But that is precisely my difficulty in eliminating A.

  I agree with E. The argument does, in fact, use two different terms. And that is why A also seems to be true. "Selfish individualism" and "selfishness" are not the same, they just appear to be. It would be like me making a statement about anger, and you responding that "clouds have been around forever". Like, huh? Clouds have nothing to do with this.

  The only reasoning I can see is that A is only true because E is true. But that is pretty shitty.