PrepTest 126, Section 1, Question 3
Durth: Increasingly, businesses use direct mail advertising instead(52 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- Apresenting a specific(11 more words not shown)
- Basserting that there(18 more words not shown)
- Cclaiming that direct(16 more words not shown)
- Dbasing a conclusion(14 more words not shown)
- Easserting that other(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Annoying? I can see that. Immoral? Explain that part. Getting another unwanted advertisement in the mail doesn't by itself establish a moral offense. Durth points to the wasted paper: most of these advertisements are discarded unread. Even then, I want to know why that waste makes the practice immoral. What if someone recycles the mail? Or is Durth concerned about a larger environmental harm from producing all that paper? That could be an argument, but we shouldn't quietly supply it for him.
Look at the reason he actually gives. If someone else wasted this much paper, people would consider it unconscionable—morally unacceptable. Durth thinks the same judgment should apply to the advertisers.
What we’re looking for
We're asked to describe the reasoning, so we can set aside whether we're persuaded. My prediction is that Durth condemns a practice because it produces a result people would condemn in another setting. The wasted paper connects those two judgments.
Working the answers
- A
Durth doesn't present a particular case that disproves someone else's claim that direct mail is morally acceptable. He makes a general argument about the practice and its waste. Describing a specific counterexample invents a move the passage never makes.
- B
The argument criticizes what advertisers are doing now. It doesn't predict what would happen if direct mail became even more widespread. The opening observation that businesses increasingly use it isn't a forecast of a future consequence on which the conclusion depends.
- CCorrect
The result is wasted paper. Durth says that this much waste would be deemed immoral if someone else caused it, then uses that judgment to condemn direct mail advertising. C captures both the consequence and the comparison with how it would be judged elsewhere.
- D
Durth calls the practice annoying, but annoyance isn't the reason he develops for calling it immoral. His support concerns wasted paper and how that waste would be judged in other circumstances. Don't confuse a claim that appears in the passage with the evidence doing the work.
- E
Other advertising methods aren't on trial here. Newspaper advertisements or billboards could have their own negative effects, and Durth's argument would still be the same. He doesn't establish that the alternatives are harmless, and we shouldn't add that comparison to his reasoning.
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