PrepTest 112, Section 4, Question 1
A government ought to protect and encourage free(24 more words not shown)
The main conclusion above follows(9 more words not shown)
- AAn activity that(18 more words not shown)
- BBasic, inalienable rights(11 more words not shown)
- CAn activity that(13 more words not shown)
- DA government ought(15 more words not shown)
- EUniversal human rights(19 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
I can agree that free speech benefits people and still ask why that establishes a government's duty. The premise says free speech helps create a healthy nation and is therefore in the people's best interest. The conclusion tells the government what it ought to protect and encourage. We need to connect those ideas.
Imagine someone who thinks the government's purpose is scientific advancement or the promotion of a religion. That person might accept that an activity benefits the public without accepting that the government must support it. These are hypothetical views, not views we have to endorse. They show why our own agreement with the recommendation can't supply the missing rule.
What we’re looking for
The question asks for an assumption that makes the conclusion follow. I'd look for a rule making the people's best interests a reason for governmental protection and encouragement. Once we have that duty, the claim about free speech will give us a case where it applies.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
This connects exactly what the premise gives us with what the conclusion recommends. Free speech is in the people's best interest. A says the government ought to protect and encourage activities in that category. Therefore, the government ought to protect and encourage free speech.
The answer doesn't need to establish that this is the government's only purpose. It just needs to make the stated benefit enough for this particular duty, and it does.
- B
We haven't been told that free speech is a basic, inalienable right. You might believe it is, but that belief would be an extra premise you supplied. B gives a rule for protecting rights of that kind without establishing that the activity in this argument falls under the rule.
- C
Helping people and helping a government govern aren't necessarily the same thing. An activity could benefit citizens while making governing more difficult. The passage doesn't establish that free speech meets C's condition, so we can't use this rule to prove the recommendation.
- D
Whose interests? The premise concerns the people, while D concerns the government. Those interests haven't been shown to coincide. A policy could benefit citizens while inconveniencing those in government. D therefore leaves the link from the stated benefit to the government's duty unresolved.
- E
This includes the people's best interest, which is promising, but it also requires the activity to be a universal human right. The passage hasn't supplied that classification. A needs only the fact we already have; E requires an additional fact before its rule can apply.
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