PrepTest 110, Section 2, Question 22
Sociologist: Some people argue that capital punishment for(62 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(18 more words not shown)
- AIt is cited(22 more words not shown)
- BIt is cited(23 more words not shown)
- CIt is an(22 more words not shown)
- DIt is cited(25 more words not shown)
- EIt is an(25 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Keep the three voices separate. Some people say executing thieves was essential to maintaining labor discipline under British capitalism. The critics try to challenge that view by pointing out that more thieves were executed before industrialization than after it. Then the sociologist challenges the critics.
The problem with the criticism is its timeline. Capitalism and industrialization are different developments, and the passage says capitalism began centuries earlier. So an execution before industrialization could still have happened under capitalism. Comparing executions before and after industrialization doesn't, by itself, separate a period without capitalism from a period with it.
What we’re looking for
We're asked what the distinction between capitalism and industrialization does in this argument. I'd start with the sociologist's point: the criticism overlooks something relevant. The distinction explains why that criticism may fail. We don't need to decide whether executions really were essential to labor discipline; the sociologist is attacking an objection to that claim.
Working the answers
- A
This has the target wrong. The distinction is not offered as evidence against the original claim about capital punishment and capitalism. It's offered against the critics' attempt to undermine that claim. Attacking a criticism of a claim is different from attacking the claim itself.
- B
There is no direct contradiction here. Saying capitalism and industrialization are different doesn't conflict with saying executions were important to capitalism's labor discipline. Both could be true. The distinction instead challenges the critics' choice of before-and-after comparison.
- C
Finding a problem with one criticism doesn't conclusively prove the original claim. The critics might have chosen a bad comparison, yet there could still be other reasons to doubt that capital punishment was essential. The sociologist's point has a narrower job: show what this criticism overlooked.
- D
This gets the direction backward. The sociologist introduces the distinction to question the critics, not to support them. Their before-and-after industrialization comparison is less telling once we recognize that capitalism was already present before industrialization.
- ECorrect
The distinction undermines the criticism. The critics point to more executions in preindustrial England, but preindustrial doesn't necessarily mean precapitalist. Capitalism could have been operating during that earlier period too.
So those executions don't provide the clean contrast the critics seem to want. The sociologist is explaining why their objection may not work, without claiming to have established the original view beyond doubt.
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