PrepTest 112, Section 1, Question 17
The best way to write a good detective(35 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(11 more words not shown)
- AWhen planning a(33 more words not shown)
- BIn planting a(17 more words not shown)
- CGood architects do(24 more words not shown)
- DIn solving mathematical(30 more words not shown)
- ETo make a(29 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Decide who committed the crime before you start planting clues. Otherwise, you could get to the last chapter and have to announce that some newly invented character did it, with nothing earlier pointing that way.
That is the appeal of working backward. Once the writer knows the crime and culprit, the earlier circumstances can be designed to lead toward that ending. The order in which the reader encounters the story doesn't have to be the order in which the writer plans it.
What we’re looking for
For a similar example, imagine first deciding what kind of career you want, then choosing training that will help you reach it. You choose the goal and use it to determine the steps, rather than choosing steps at random and seeing where they end. That's the principle I want in the answers: settle on the desired result, then work out how to produce it.
Working the answers
- A
The opening sounds promising: some travelers pick their destination and plan around it. But the main point then changes. For most people, it says, financial planning must come before choosing the destination. That lets the available means determine the goal, instead of first selecting the goal and using it to plan the means. The first clause resembles our pattern; the advice the answer develops doesn't.
- B
This gets the order backward. The vegetables would be the desired result, and soil preparation would be part of producing them. To match the detective-story principle, we would first choose the vegetables, then prepare the soil to suit them. B prepares the soil before making that choice, so the goal isn't directing the preparation.
- C
This says a design must take account of how the building will be constructed and shouldn't be improvised without advance preparation. It doesn't specify the order we need: choose the finished result, then determine the earlier steps from it. Taking time and connecting a plan with its execution aren't enough to establish that particular method of planning.
- D
Trying multiple strategies is a search for a solution. It doesn't require starting with a chosen result and planning the steps backward from that result. The number of available strategies could make trial and error easier, but it doesn't turn trial and error into the method described in the passage.
- ECorrect
First visualize where the tennis ball should land. Then work out the position needed to execute that shot. The chosen result directs the preparation.
The landing point plays the role of the crime and culprit: it is settled before the supporting details. The player's position plays the role of the circumstances and clues: it is selected to produce the chosen result. Tennis and detective fiction are different activities, but that planning relationship is the same.
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