PrepTest 120, Section 1, Question 5
The human emotional response presents an apparent paradox.(33 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- AFred was watching(24 more words not shown)
- BTamara was reading(28 more words not shown)
- CRaheem thought that(21 more words not shown)
- DJeremy was upset(22 more words not shown)
- ESandy was watching(24 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What's supposed to be paradoxical about having emotions? The problem isn't simply that people feel things. It's the mismatch between what people think can move them and what actually does.
Someone says, “A made-up story won't upset me. I know it isn't real.” Then that person watches a sad movie about a dog and gets upset anyway. The dog in the story doesn't have to be real for the viewer's sadness to be real.
What we’re looking for
That gives us a clear prediction for this question, which asks for a situation matching the passage: someone expects fiction to leave them emotionally untouched, yet has a genuine emotional response to it. Keep both pieces. Merely talking about a fictional character won't be enough, and neither will reacting to something the person mistakenly believes really happened.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Fred knows the monsters are make-believe and doesn't expect them to bother him, yet he feels frightened when they appear. The fictional monsters produce a real emotional response despite his expectation. That's the same mismatch the passage describes.
- B
Tamara is making statements about Hamlet's fictional world. Saying that Hamlet is a prince doesn't tell us she's emotionally moved by the play. We have fiction, but we're missing the emotional response.
- C
Raheem believes his sister really is in the hospital when he worries about her. He's mistaken, but he doesn't know he's reacting to something untrue. His worry fits the idea that people are moved by events they believe are actual; it doesn't illustrate being moved by something they know is fictional.
- D
Jeremy doubts the writer's accuracy, but thinking a story is unlikely is different from knowing it's fiction. He may still be upset by the possibility that these actions really occurred. The answer doesn't give us the clear awareness of make-believe that A supplies, or the expectation that such material won't affect him.
- E
This goes in the other direction: accurate historical material fails to hold Sandy's interest. We want fiction that produces an emotion, not factual material that fails to engage someone. The passage doesn't say every actual event must move everyone who encounters it.
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