PrepTest 123, Section 3, Question 6
Jablonski, who owns a car dealership, has donated(53 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- AThe only way(9 more words not shown)
- BAltruistic actions sometimes(8 more words not shown)
- CYoung drivers are(10 more words not shown)
- DIt is usually(10 more words not shown)
- EAn action must(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Donating cars because you want young people to drive more safely sounds generous. Does it actually reduce accidents? We aren't told. Jablonski's reason for helping and the eventual safety results are separate things.
What we do learn is that some people support the donation by buying cars from her dealership. That's a benefit to her business. She set out to help young drivers, and other people's response brings something good back to her.
Could someone donate just to attract customers? Sure, but we don't need to invent that motive here. The passage tells us she was disturbed by the accident statistics and wanted to encourage better driving. A helpful intention and a benefit to the donor can coexist.
What we’re looking for
We're asked what the example illustrates. I'd predict a modest lesson: sometimes an action meant to help others also helps the person who performs it. Keep it that modest. One dealership's experience won't establish what usually happens, and it hasn't told us whether the driving program succeeded.
Working the answers
- A
We don't even know whether these donations reduced accidents. We certainly haven't learned that driver education is the only way to reduce them. This turns a person's reason for supporting a program into a sweeping claim about what works.
- BCorrect
“Altruistic” means intended to benefit others. Jablonski donates to encourage safer driving among young people, and the community's response brings customers to her dealership. That gives us an example of an altruistic action with a positive consequence for the person doing it. “Sometimes” is enough; we don't need a promise that generosity always pays.
- C
Most likely compared with whom? The passage gives us young drivers as the people Jablonski wants to help. It doesn't compare their likely benefits with those of older drivers or any other group. Being the intended recipients doesn't make them the group most likely to benefit.
- D
Usually? We've seen one case. It supports the possibility described in B, but not a claim that helping others is in our best interest most of the time. The strength of the conclusion has to match what this single example shows.
- E
Community support led some people to buy cars from Jablonski. That doesn't establish that broad support is required for an action to succeed. We also haven't been told that the donation achieved its intended safety goal. E adds both a claim about success and a general requirement the example doesn't establish.
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