PrepTest 118, Section 4, Question 16
People are not happy unless they feel that(44 more words not shown)
The statements above most strongly(6 more words not shown)
- APeople who realize(20 more words not shown)
- BThe nature of(13 more words not shown)
- CMost people in(17 more words not shown)
- DA majority of(14 more words not shown)
- EFewer than a(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Being good at your job isn't the same as feeling irreplaceable. If thousands of other people could do the work, the job might not supply the feeling the passage says happiness requires.
Follow the two claims together. To be happy, a person must feel needed. For most people in modern society, family and friendship are the only places they can achieve that feeling of indispensability. Those people therefore have to look to their personal relationships for this requirement of happiness.
There could be exceptions. Imagine someone with a highly unusual role who feels indispensable through work. The passage leaves room for that person, but says most people are in the other group. It also doesn't say that having family or friends automatically makes anyone happy. A required ingredient isn't a guarantee of the result.
What we’re looking for
The question asks what the statements most strongly support. My prediction is that most people depend on family and friendship for happiness. Keep that as a claim about where they can find it, not a claim that most people already are happy.
Working the answers
- A
Recognizing that someone else could do your job doesn't eliminate every possible source of happiness. The passage specifically supplies another place to find the needed feeling: family and friendship. A wrongly turns a limitation of the job into a limitation of the person's entire life.
- B
The passage makes personal relationships more important to the stated route to happiness, not less. If work usually can't provide the feeling of being indispensable, family and friendship become the places most people have to seek it. Nothing says modern society makes family life unimportant.
- C
We aren't told how many people actually have happy private lives. They might lack the required feeling even there, or other things might keep them unhappy. Knowing where most people must look for a requirement doesn't tell us how many obtain it or become happy.
- D
Someone can appreciate a job while knowing other people could perform it. The argument concerns feeling needed, not gratitude for employment. A person might value the pay, coworkers, or work itself without feeling irreplaceable, so D doesn't follow.
- ECorrect
Most people can obtain the required feeling only through family and friendship. That leaves fewer than half who could find happiness outside those private relationships. E expresses the same restriction from the side of the possible exceptions. It doesn't claim that those exceptions actually are happy, just that only a minority can find happiness outside that sphere.
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