PrepTest 110, Section 4, Question 8
Tragic dramas written in Greece during the fifth(450 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(16 more words not shown)
- AIf the goddess(27 more words not shown)
- BIf the goddess(35 more words not shown)
- CIf the goddess(34 more words not shown)
- DAs I alone(18 more words not shown)
- EAs I have(24 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Agamemnon treats the sacrifice as a price worth paying: if it gets him the wind, he considers it permissible to desire it fervently. We need to follow exactly what he is justifying, rather than settle for something generally consistent with his wish to win.
What we’re looking for
The word “only” can be distracting in the choices. But the sentence before the quotation says Artemis made the sacrifice the only route to the wind. That context is supported. Look at what each answer says he may desire.
Working the answers
- A
“Evade battle” means avoid it. He wants to get to the battle, not escape it.
- B
This gets the route to battle right, but ends with desiring victory. That's already his ambition. The quotation makes the further claim that he may desire the sacrifice itself. B changes the object of the desire being justified.
- CCorrect
Both parts match: the sacrifice obtains the wind, and that makes it permissible, in Agamemnon's view, to desire the sacrifice. In the statement permitting his intense desire (paragraph 3), the second “it” refers to the sacrifice. That small difference at the end separates C from B.
- D
Artemis established the condition, not Agamemnon alone. Also, the promised wind gets the ships to battle; it doesn't guarantee victory there.
- E
This has the relationship backward. Wanting victory isn't said to guarantee the sacrifice's success. He uses what the sacrifice will obtain—the wind—as his reason for desiring the sacrifice.
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