PrepTest 126, Section 1, Question 1
The editor of a magazine has pointed out(33 more words not shown)
The flawed reasoning in the(13 more words not shown)
- AYour newspaper cannot(17 more words not shown)
- BYour news program(19 more words not shown)
- CYour regulatory agency(14 more words not shown)
- DYour coach cannot(17 more words not shown)
- EYour teen magazine(21 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
I make typos. Does that mean I can't spot yours?
The editor's magazine has spelling and grammar errors. Fine. That doesn't tell us whether the errors she identified on television are real. She could make exactly the same mistakes and still recognize them in someone else's work.
Think about cooking. Someone who isn't a good cook can still notice that the food you served is undercooked. Being bad at doing something doesn't automatically make you bad at judging it. Here, the author uses the editor's own mistakes to dismiss her criticism without checking whether that criticism is accurate.
What we’re looking for
For the parallel question, keep that particular attack intact: you commit the very offense you're criticizing, so we can't trust your criticism. Another attack on someone's credibility won't be enough. We want the same alleged hypocrisy.
Working the answers
- A
This shifts from spelling to ethics. Misspelling the president's name isn't the same offense as acting unethically. To match the original, the newspaper would need to be accused of the unethical behavior it was criticizing. Merely dismissing a critic isn't enough to match the reasoning.
- BCorrect
The news program criticizes unfair hiring, and the response is that the program itself hires and promotes unfairly. That matches the editor who criticizes errors while publishing similar errors herself. In both cases, doing the same thing is offered as a reason to distrust the criticism. But the program's own unfairness wouldn't make this company's hiring fair.
- C
This appeals to a legal exception. Being allowed to sell a product doesn't establish that the product is safe, but that is a different mistake. Nobody accuses the regulatory agency of selling an unsafe product itself. We need the critic's own similar conduct to be the reason for dismissing the criticism.
- D
Accepting money to promote a soft drink isn't the same thing as having bad swimming practices. Whatever we think of the deal, the answer doesn't say the coach commits the offense he is judging. It lacks the original's claim of hypocrisy.
- E
This gives a business reason to avoid publishing the feature: it might alienate the people who support the magazine. It doesn't reject the magazine's judgment because the magazine has the same problems it criticizes. A warning about losing customers is a different argument.
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