PrepTest 117, Section 2, Question 18
Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula portrayed vampires—the "undead"(62 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AAt least one(16 more words not shown)
- BVampire myths in(18 more words not shown)
- CVampire myths did(11 more words not shown)
- DAt least one(19 more words not shown)
- EAt the time(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Did Dracula change the way people pictured vampires? The passage says Stoker's novel strongly influenced people, including their belief that turning into a bat is an essential feature of vampire myths. That makes me wonder whether the book introduced the feature or simply made an existing idea more familiar. We shouldn't assume either just because the novel was influential.
Then the author says the belief is false because vampire myths existed in Europe long before the book. I'm not immediately convinced. A story being old doesn't stop a later book from changing how people picture it. And the fact that the old stories existed doesn't, on its own, settle the claim about an essential feature.
What we’re looking for
This assumption question asks what the argument needs in order to use those older myths as support. Keep the exact dispute in view: whether being able to turn into a bat is essential to vampire myths. We're not deciding whether vampires exist, whether stories can change, or whether every detail of Stoker's account was original. Let's see which answer makes the older myths relevant to that dispute.
Working the answers
- A
Nocturnal means active at night. A myth portraying a vampire as active during the day would challenge the idea that vampires must be strictly nocturnal. But the conclusion concerns turning into bats. A gives an exception to a different supposed feature.
- B
Other myths also including bat transformations wouldn't show that transformation is an essential feature of every vampire myth, and it wouldn't show that it isn't. The author uses earlier European myths to challenge the claim. Facts about where real vampire bats live or how other regions portray vampires don't supply what that use of the older stories requires.
- C
The argument doesn't need vampire myths to have existed only in Europe. Myths elsewhere could have existed too, without changing what the earlier European examples establish. C adds a restriction on the location of all earlier myths that the reasoning doesn't require.
- DCorrect
At least one earlier European myth must omit the ability to turn into a bat. Now we can see why those older myths matter: they provide an example of a vampire myth without the supposedly essential feature.
If every earlier myth also included bat transformation, merely pointing out that those myths were old wouldn't undermine its being essential. D supplies the needed exception. Notice how limited it is: at least one earlier myth, not all earlier myths. It also doesn't establish that Stoker invented the ability; the author only needs an earlier exception to the claim of essentiality.
- E
Stoker could have known the earlier myths or been unfamiliar with them. The argument concerns what counts as an essential feature of vampire myths, not where Stoker got his ideas. His personal knowledge isn't needed for an earlier myth without transformation to count as an exception.
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