PT156.S2.Q11

SECTION 1 · 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 Question 21

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

SECTION 2 · 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 3 · rc

PASSAGE 1
Question 1 Question 2 Question 3 Question 4 Question 5

PASSAGE 2
Question 6 Question 7 Question 8 Question 9 Question 10 Question 11 Question 12 Question 13

PASSAGE 3
Question 14 Question 15 Question 16 Question 17 Question 18 Question 19 Question 20 Question 21

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

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 156 - Section 2 - Question 11

Question

Explanation

Analytics

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Professor Williams: Professor Thomas's report characterizes our colleague Professor York as too flamboyant and confrontational in the classroom. ███ ███ ████████ █████ ██ ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ████████ ████ ███ ███ ██ ██████ ██ █████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ██████ ███ ███████████ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ███ ███ ██ █████ ████████████ ██ ██████████ ██████████████████ ████ ██ ███████████

Summarize Argument: Counter-Position

Professor Thomas says Professor York is too flamboyant and confrontational in the classroom. The author implicitly calls this claim into question by citing the fact that Thomas’s claim is self-serving. Thomas is not as good a presenter as York, so Thomas’s criticism of York may simply be a result of envy.

Identify and Describe Flaw

The author attacks Professor Thomas’s motivation rather than the merits of his claim. Whether Thomas is venting his frustration or otherwise making comments due to envy or out of self-interest has nothing to do with the truth of whether Professor York is actually too flamboyant or confrontational in the classroom.

Analysis by Kevin_Lin

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11.

Professor Williams's argument is flawed ███████ ██

confuses the distinction ███████ █████ ██████ ███████████████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ ████████████ ████

The author doesn’t mistake being too confrontational with being entertaining. There’s no sign that the author thinks one type of behavior is the same as the other.

presupposes the point ██ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████

(B) describes circular reasoning. The author’s conclusion, which is an implicit questioning of Professor Thomas’s claim about Professor York, does not restate a premise.

mistakes Professor Thomas's ████████████████ ██ █ ████ ███ ██ ███████████ ██ ████ ████

The author does not think Thomas endorsed anything that York did or said.

attacks Professor Thomas ██████████ ██████ ████ ██████████ █████████ ████████ ████████

The author attacked Professor Thomas’s motivations rather than addressing the substance of Professor’s Thomas’s argument. We care about whether York is too flamboyant and confrontational. Thomas’s motive is irrelevant.

rejects the possibility ████ █████████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ███ ███████████████

There’s a difference between rejecting Thomas’s conclusion that York is too confrontational and criticizing Thomas’s argument in favor of that conclusion. The author does the latter.

Difficulty

Question

89% of people who answer get this correct

This is a slightly challenging question.

CURVE

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

25% 123

135

75% 147

Analysis

Question Stem Tags

Flaw or descriptive weakening

Stems that ask us to articulate a flaw in the stimulus' argument, either in abstract terms or by pointing out a weakness.

Stimulus Tags

Ad hominem

Counterarguments that attack opponents directly instead of the substance of their reasoning, often accusing opponents of hypocrisy or bias.

Answer Popularity

Popularity Avg. score

153

156

154

89%

162

155

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