PrepTest 101, Section 3, Question 3
M: The Greek alphabet must have been invented(80 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(11 more words not shown)
- Aattacking M's understanding(7 more words not shown)
- Bdisagreeing with M's(6 more words not shown)
- Cchallenging M's knowledge(5 more words not shown)
- Dattempting to undermine(7 more words not shown)
- Eproviding an alternative(7 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
How do we know that was the reason the Greek alphabet was invented? M gives a very definite hypothesis: someone familiar with Phoenician writing wanted to preserve the Homeric epics. We haven't yet been given evidence that settles either the inventor's background or that particular purpose.
P responds by asking why such a person would bother. The inventor already knows the poems, and, according to P, nobody else could read the new alphabet. So who would benefit from writing them down? P wants the proposed project to look pointless, and the hypothesis to look absurd as a result.
But couldn't the inventor teach someone else to read? Imagine writing down the poems, then teaching the alphabet to children who don't yet know them. The writing would have an audience and a purpose. P hasn't ruled that out. I can question P's objection just as I questioned the certainty of M's original claim.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what P does, though, not whether P succeeds. Our prediction should describe the attack: P tries to undermine the hypothesis by making the proposed inventor's behavior seem absurd. An attempted refutation is still an attempted refutation even if we can find a problem with it.
Working the answers
- A
P doesn't say that M has misjudged whether the poems are good. The challenge is about why someone would write them down when, supposedly, nobody would need or be able to read them. Literary quality and the proposed purpose of writing are separate issues.
- B
If P had stopped at “Your hypothesis is laughable,” this might fit. But P goes on to give a reason: the writer would not need to read the poems, and nobody else could read them. We may think that reason is incomplete, but it is an attempt to show why the hypothesis fails.
- C
P never says M misunderstands the Phoenician writing system. That system is part of M's account of the inventor's background. P attacks the purpose of creating the Greek alphabet, not M's knowledge of Phoenician writing.
- DCorrect
P presents the hypothesized project as pointless: its creator wouldn't need the text, and its potential readers supposedly couldn't read it. That is meant to make M's explanation seem absurd and therefore unworthy of acceptance. The teaching possibility we noticed challenges P's success, but it doesn't change the strategy P is attempting.
- E
Where is P's alternative account? P doesn't say who actually invented the alphabet or give another interpretation of evidence M supplied. Think of choosing a restaurant with a friend who rejects every suggestion but never proposes a place. Rejecting your ideas isn't the same as offering an alternative. P is doing the rejecting here.
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