PT143.S1.Q14

SECTION 1 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

SECTION 2 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7

PASSAGE 2
Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14

PASSAGE 3
Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20

PASSAGE 4
Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26 Question 27

SECTION 3 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25

SECTION 4 · lr

Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5 Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13 Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21 Question 22 Question 23 Question 24 Question 25 Question 26

PrepTest 143 - Section 1 - Question 14

Question

Explanation

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If people refrained from being impolite to one another the condition of society would be greatly improved. ███ ███████ █████ ███ ██ ██████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████ ███████ ████ █████████ ██████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ██████ █████████ ████ ████ █████ ██████ ████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ █████████████

Argument Structure

The stimulus opens with context: if people stopped being impolite, society would improve. But then the author pivots. She concludes that society would not be better off if the government enacted laws requiring politeness. Why not? Because enforcing those laws would create even more problems than impoliteness itself does.

The first sentence is background context. It acknowledges that impoliteness is a real problem, but it doesn't play a role in the author's reasoning. The author's actual argument is contained in the second and third sentences: the conclusion (society wouldn't be better off with politeness laws) and the premise supporting it (enforcing those laws would create more problems than impoliteness does).

How do we know the second sentence is the conclusion and the third is the premise? The third sentence provides a reason for believing the second. The author thinks society wouldn't be better off from politeness laws because enforcing them would cause more problems than impoliteness. You can also test this by reversing the relationship: does it make sense to say "enforcing these laws would create more problems because society wouldn't be better off with them"? No, that doesn't work. The reasoning flows in one direction only.

The Role of the Referenced Claim

The claim we're asked about, that society would not be better off with government-mandated politeness laws, is the conclusion of the argument.

Analysis by Kevin_Lin

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14.

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

It is the ██████████ █████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ █ ██████

This accurately describes the referenced claim. The claim that society wouldn't be better off with politeness laws is what the author is trying to prove, and the third sentence (enforcing such laws would create even more problems than impoliteness) is the evidence offered in support of it.

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

The referenced claim isn't evidence for anything. It's the other way around: the third sentence (about enforcement creating more problems) is evidence for the referenced claim. If you're thinking of the first sentence as the "overall conclusion," note that the first sentence is just context. The author isn't trying to prove that refraining from impoliteness would improve society. She simply grants that point before making her actual argument.

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

Same issue as (B). The referenced claim isn't cited as evidence at all. It's the claim being supported, not a claim doing the supporting.

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

The referenced claim isn't an illustration of another claim. An illustration would be a specific example used to demonstrate a broader point. Here, the claim that society wouldn't benefit from politeness laws is the author's conclusion, supported by cost-benefit reasoning about the effects of enforcement.

It describes a ██████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ████████

The referenced claim isn't a phenomenon being explained. It's the conclusion of the argument. The author isn't observing that society wouldn't benefit and then trying to explain why. She's arguing that society wouldn't benefit, using the enforcement problems as her reason.

Difficulty

Question

81% of people who answer get this correct

This is a moderately difficult question.

CURVE

Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right

25% 141

150

75% 159

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Argument part

Stems that quote an excerpt from the stimulus, then ask what role it plays in the argument (e.g. premise, conclusion, background). Learn more.

Stimulus Tags

Net effect

Stimuli that feature net effect reasoning (e.g. premises saying "A has one downside" and a conclusion saying "A is bad overall").

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

81%

165

159

157

158

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