PrepTest 109, Section 4, Question 18

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A

  The coach doesn't equate enthusiasm with unethical play. The coach is defending the team's enthusiasm. Nor does the passage describe cheating or breaking the game's rules. A attributes a judgment to the coach that the coach never makes.

• B
  Correct

  Here is the more precise problem: the coach answers a different meaning of “unprofessional.” The critics are objecting to how the team behaves—its maturity or sportsmanship. The coach responds by pointing to people who play the sport professionally.

  Those are different ideas. A paid athlete can behave immaturely, just as an amateur can behave with excellent sportsmanship. Showing that professional athletes celebrate even more doesn't answer the criticism that this team's conduct falls below an appropriate standard. It explains why our initial objection works: the professionals' behavior isn't automatically the standard of acceptable behavior.

• C

  Different levels of a sport might matter in some comparisons, but that isn't the problem identified here. Even if the teams played at the same level, pointing to other professionals would not settle whether their conduct was professional in the sense the critics mean. The mistake turns on the meaning of the criticism, not simply on transferring a claim between levels.

• D

  Excusing behavior isn't the same as blaming someone else for causing it. The coach doesn't say professional players made this team act this way or should be held responsible for its actions. The coach points to their behavior as supposed evidence that the team's behavior is acceptable.

• E

  We aren't told that only a few players behaved this way and that the coach then blamed the entire team. A few players versus everyone would be a different mistake. This argument concerns how to judge the behavior, not which individual team members performed it.