PrepTest 102, Section 4, Question 22
Sarah: Some schools seek to foster a habit(100 more words not shown)
The main point at issue(6 more words not shown)
- Athere are any(22 more words not shown)
- Bbeing forced to(16 more words not shown)
- Cbeing forced to(22 more words not shown)
- Dit is possible(14 more words not shown)
- Estudents who develop(17 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Can a required first experience lead someone to choose more service later?
I can imagine a student doing only what graduation requires and then stopping. I can also imagine a student discovering that helping people is rewarding and continuing voluntarily. Those are different possible outcomes of the same requirement.
Sarah says this policy cannot develop a volunteering habit by itself. She reasons that being forced isn't volunteering and that someone who hasn't volunteered yet hasn't developed the habit. Paul points to students who enjoy the required experience and later freely choose something similar. For him, that later choice is a success the policy helped produce.
What we’re looking for
For the disagreement question, keep that particular policy in view. Does requiring community service have the ability to encourage a genuine volunteering habit? Sarah says no; Paul says yes. We don't need to establish that it works for everyone.
Working the answers
- A
This asks whether the forced task itself can count as volunteering. Sarah says it cannot, but Paul doesn't say it can. His examples count the subsequent freely chosen service as volunteering. He can accept Sarah's description of the first act while disagreeing about what follows from it.
- B
Paul says some students enjoy the required service. Sarah doesn't say they fail to enjoy it. A person could enjoy an activity and still have been required to do it, so enjoyment alone doesn't settle Sarah's objection. We have Paul's position on B, but not an opposing position from Sarah.
- CCorrect
This identifies their disagreement about the effect of compulsory service. Sarah says the policy cannot succeed by itself in developing the habit. Paul says it can: the required activity is enjoyable enough to prompt later voluntary participation. They take opposite positions on whether this method can encourage genuine volunteering.
- D
This is broader than C. Sarah rejects mandatory participation as a way to develop the habit; she doesn't say schools cannot develop it through any policy. She might support a program that offers voluntary opportunities and explains why they matter. Paul likewise supports the possibility of success for the particular policy discussed. Rejecting this method doesn't mean rejecting the possibility of reaching the goal.
- E
Neither speaker gives a general prediction about students who already have a volunteering habit continuing later in life. Their dispute concerns whether compulsory service can establish the habit in the first place. We can't infer an opposing pair of views about long-term persistence from that disagreement.
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