PrepTest 103, Section 2, Question 3
Trisha: Today's family is declining in its ability(63 more words not shown)
Trisha and Jerod disagree over(7 more words not shown)
- Aadequate as it(1 more words not shown)
- Bchanging over(1 more words not shown)
- Cvalued by most(1 more words not shown)
- Dnot going to(1 more words not shown)
- Eno longer(1 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What exactly is going wrong with families? Are parents struggling to help with homework, spending less time with their children, or having trouble creating a stable home? Trisha begins with a broad claim about decline, and I want to know what that decline looks like.
Her recommendation is to return to traditional commitment and responsibility. That tells us she sees a problem requiring change. But she has not explained how the proposed return would address the difficulties she describes.
Jerod pushes back at an earlier point: why assume the current situation needs fixing? He allows that families may be less stable than they used to be, but says most people do not find that bad. In his view, the criticisms exaggerate the problem and cause harm.
So the disagreement is not simply whether something has changed. It is whether the current family is good enough to leave alone.
What we’re looking for
The question asks us to identify that dispute. My initial prediction is that Trisha wants action to fix the family, while Jerod thinks that action is unnecessary. Look for that difference in their assessments.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Trisha treats the current family as inadequate: it is declining in important functions, so a return to traditional values is needed. Jerod explicitly says to leave what is good enough alone. He regards the current situation as adequate even if it is not perfect.
That is the disagreement behind our prediction about taking action. One speaker sees something that needs fixing; the other does not.
- B
Jerod does not deny change over time. He allows that contemporary families may be less stable. Trisha also describes a decline. They disagree about whether the present situation is acceptable, not clearly about whether it differs from the past.
- C
Neither speaker clearly takes a position on whether most people value the institution of the family. Jerod says most people do not regard reduced stability as bad, which is a claim about their reaction to a change. It does not settle how much they value families. We cannot produce two opposing positions on C.
- D
Trisha says the family is doing worse, not that it will disappear. Jerod likewise makes no prediction about the institution failing to survive. We should not turn a concern about current performance into a forecast of extinction.
- E
Trisha wants a return to traditional values, and Jerod allows a difference from traditional stability. Nothing establishes that they disagree over whether the current family is no longer traditional. What separates them is their judgment about the current state, which A captures.
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