PrepTest 105, Section 1, Question 6
We should do what will make others more(47 more words not shown)
From the statements above, if(10 more words not shown)
- AWe should withhold(7 more words not shown)
- BWe should not(8 more words not shown)
- CWe should praise(14 more words not shown)
- DWe should praise(9 more words not shown)
- EWe should withhold(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Deserving praise and benefiting from praise are different things here. The first rule tells us to focus on the effect: do what makes someone more virtuous, and avoid what makes someone less virtuous. Think of “more virtuous” as becoming a better person.
Then we get the strange part. Praise improves the less virtuous people but makes the more virtuous people worse. If we follow the first rule, we should praise the less virtuous people and refrain from praising the more virtuous people. Whether that sounds like a sensible account of human behavior isn't the question; these are the facts we're asked to accept.
The final sentence says only the more virtuous deserve praise. So, in the contrast the passage sets up, the people who deserve praise are precisely the ones we shouldn't praise.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what follows from these statements. Keep the two judgments separate: who deserves it, and who should receive it given what it does to them.
Working the answers
- A
This goes against the passage's recommendation for the less virtuous group. Praising those people would improve them, and the first sentence tells us to do what makes people more virtuous. Lack of merit isn't a reason to withhold something that would have the desired effect.
- B
“Should not fail to praise” means we should praise them. But the people who deserve praise are in the more virtuous group, and praising that group makes them less virtuous. The first rule tells us not to do that. B follows the intuitive idea of rewarding merit rather than the unusual rule actually given.
- CCorrect
Praise the less virtuous people, who don't deserve it, because it makes them more virtuous. Withhold praise from those who deserve it because it makes them less virtuous. Both parts follow the first sentence's focus on improving people. The surprising result comes from combining that rule with the different effects of praise, not from ignoring who deserves it.
- D
Praising everyone would include praising the more virtuous people. That would make them less virtuous, which the first rule tells us to avoid. The effects differ between the groups, so we can't prescribe the same action for everyone.
- E
Withholding praise from everyone would include withholding it from the less virtuous people, whom praise would improve. That loses the benefit the first rule tells us to pursue. The passage calls for a different response to each group, not a blanket ban on praise.
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