PrepTest 115, Section 2, Question 7
The kind of thoughts that keep a person(63 more words not shown)
According to the hypothesis, for(22 more words not shown)
- AThe person is(8 more words not shown)
- BThe person normally(6 more words not shown)
- CThoughts of sheep(9 more words not shown)
- DThoughts of sheep(10 more words not shown)
- EThoughts of sheep(8 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What if counting sheep keeps you awake?
The proposed method replaces the thoughts that are keeping someone up. Counting is supposed to occupy one half of the brain, and picturing sheep the other, leaving no room for the troublesome thoughts. Accept that account for this question. We still need the replacement activity not to create its own obstacle to sleep.
Imagine becoming determined to reach a thousand sheep tonight. Now you're concentrating on beating your record instead of drifting off. The old worries might be gone, but the exercise could still keep you awake. Removing the original problem isn't enough if the replacement recreates it.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what must be true for this method to work for the person described. The person must be able to do the activity, of course: count and picture sheep. More importantly, the sheep thoughts cannot themselves keep that person awake at that time. That's the objection we need the answer to rule out.
Working the answers
- A
A wide-ranging imagination isn't required. The person needs to imagine sheep for this particular technique. Even if sheep were the only thing the person could picture, that would meet the imagination requirement the explanation gives us.
- B
The person needn't normally struggle to fall asleep. Perhaps this is an unusual night when worries are keeping an otherwise sound sleeper awake. The proposed method could be effective on that night without describing the person's usual sleep habits.
- CCorrect
The sheep thoughts must not keep this person awake now. If they did, filling the mind with them would replace one source of wakefulness with another, and the method wouldn't achieve its purpose. C directly blocks the problem raised by the sheep-counting competition example.
- D
This is much stronger than we need. It says sheep thoughts induce sleep whenever they arise. Imagine someone reading a reference to sheep during class and immediately falling asleep. The hypothesis doesn't require anything like that.
The claim concerns someone whose particular thoughts are currently the sole obstacle to sleep and who uses the described activity. Removing that obstacle in those circumstances doesn't mean every thought about a sheep must cause sleep in every situation.
- E
What appears in a person's dreams concerns what happens after that person falls asleep. The argument is about getting to sleep in the first place. Dreaming about sheep would not prevent the counting method from having helped the person fall asleep.
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