PrepTest 114, Section 2, Question 8
Books updating the classification systems used by many(53 more words not shown)
The reasoning above is most(5 more words not shown)
- Aclaims without providing(7 more words not shown)
- Bconcludes that a(8 more words not shown)
- Cfails to consider(12 more words not shown)
- Dconcludes that there(8 more words not shown)
- Efails to consider(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Couldn't the publishers want to sell books and improve the system?
A classification system is a way of organizing the collection: for example, grouping books by subject so readers can find them. I can understand the suspicion when expensive books keep announcing a new system that libraries supposedly need. A publisher has an obvious reason to make the latest version sound essential.
But “just a ploy” is stronger than “a useful sales pitch.” Perhaps the publisher exaggerates the improvement but also wants to make finding books a little easier. We don't have to establish a huge benefit or show that every update is worth buying. We only need to leave open a genuine purpose alongside the desire for sales.
What we’re looking for
For the flaw, I'd look for that leap from a possible money-making motive to the claim that there is no other motive. The incentive to sell doesn't settle whether the changes also aim to improve the system.
Working the answers
- A
The passage says the books are very expensive, and we can accept that information. It doesn't call their price unreasonable. A adds that judgment and directs us toward defending the price rather than examining the claim about the publishers' motives. Even an expensive book could serve a real purpose.
- BCorrect
An ulterior motive is another aim behind the stated purpose—in this case, getting libraries to buy books. The argument treats that possible commercial motive as the whole explanation for the updates.
But making money and improving a product can go together. A publisher might want both. Even a small improvement could be something the publisher genuinely aims to provide. We don't know that this is the actual motive, but the evidence hasn't excluded it. That is enough to challenge “just a ploy.”
- C
Other customers might exist. Their existence wouldn't resolve the question about why the publishers change the systems or whether the sales motive is the only motive. We don't have to insist that nobody except a library could buy these books; that isn't the missing piece of the argument.
- D
The author criticizes these frequent changes as a sales ploy. That isn't a claim that no classification system could ever need changing. D turns a criticism of the updates under discussion into an absolute position about all possible changes.
- E
Limited library budgets don't establish the publishers' motives. A library could be unable to afford every book it wants whether these updates are useful, deceptive, or some mixture of the two. E raises a purchasing constraint without explaining the author's leap to an exclusively commercial purpose.
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