PrepTest 111, Section 4, Question 21
All social systems are based upon a division(51 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(12 more words not shown)
- ASocial systems will(10 more words not shown)
- BNo type of(11 more words not shown)
- CA social system(18 more words not shown)
- DA technologically advanced(13 more words not shown)
- EA technological innovation(24 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Which jobs disappear could matter. A society might give doctors considerable prestige while giving a different role much less. Replacing one kind of work with technology needn't affect people's values in exactly the same way as replacing another.
Still, I understand the connection the passage makes. Economic roles carry social prestige. Technology that eliminates a role can therefore disrupt something the society values. We're discussing a tendency to undermine those values, not a promise that every new machine transforms everyone's beliefs.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what we can most reasonably conclude. That means our task is to follow the account we've been given, rather than reject it because we can imagine complications. My starting prediction is modest: technology that removes economic roles can affect a society's values. Now let's see which answer respects that connection without expanding it beyond what the passage says.
Working the answers
- A
Preventing technological change wouldn't prevent every possible change in values. A war, for example, might change what people admire even if no labor-saving technology arrives. The passage identifies one influence on values; removing that influence doesn't guarantee that values stay fixed.
- B
The passage singles out technology that makes economic roles obsolete. B expands this to every type of technology. We haven't been told that every invention eliminates a role or otherwise undermines a society's values.
- CCorrect
Think about what it would mean for a society's values to be completely immune to change. On the passage's account, eliminating economic roles introduces a way to undermine those values. A society whose values aren't susceptible to change couldn't have that source of vulnerability.
The wording matters: C doesn't merely describe a society whose values happen to have stayed the same so far. Values could remain unchanged for a while despite being capable of change. C describes values that aren't susceptible to change at all, which doesn't fit a system where technology can eliminate the roles in which those values are embodied.
- D
Technology could change which roles receive prestige without making prestige unimportant. A formerly admired role might disappear while another becomes more highly valued. The passage doesn't establish that an advanced society places little value on the prestige of economic roles generally.
- E
The place where an invention was developed isn't the relevant distinction. We need to know whether it eliminates economic roles, not whether it crosses a border. E also broadens the claim from undermining particular values to undermining the foreign social system. Neither expansion follows from what we're given.
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