PrepTest 126, Section 3, Question 24
It is popularly believed that a poem has(51 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(7 more words not shown)
- AOnly if they(17 more words not shown)
- BIf two readers(20 more words not shown)
- CDiscussion of a(21 more words not shown)
- DA given poem(13 more words not shown)
- EAesthetic evaluation of(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Couldn't two readers disagree about a poem's meaning and still discuss its rhyme or its use of language? That's my first reaction to the claim about discussing aesthetic value. A poem might mean one thing to me and something else to you, while we both notice how it's written.
But pause before turning that into our answer. The passage gives us a requirement for discussing aesthetic value: it must be possible for at least two readers to agree on a correct interpretation. For this question, that is a premise. The conclusion is further upstream: objective evaluation is possible only if the popular belief about readers assigning meanings is false.
What we’re looking for
The question asks for an assumption the argument requires. We need to track how the statement about discussing aesthetic value is supposed to support the claim about objective evaluation. Getting absorbed in whether the discussion requirement sounds sensible can make us miss what the argument is actually trying to establish.
Working the answers
- A
Two people each judging that a poem has aesthetic value isn't the same as discussing that value together or objectively evaluating it. They could reach their individual judgments for different reasons. A gives a requirement for those individual positive judgments, but the conclusion concerns the possibility of objective evaluation.
- B
This says agreement on meaning guarantees that objective evaluation is possible. The argument doesn't need that guarantee. Agreement could be one requirement while other requirements remain unmet. The reasoning concerns what must be in place for evaluation, not a claim that agreement by itself supplies everything needed.
- C
This broadly restricts discussion of a poem. The premise is narrower: discussion of its aesthetic value. We could talk about when a poem was printed or how many lines it has without settling its correct interpretation. The argument doesn't need to rule out every kind of discussion, and C still doesn't connect aesthetic discussion to objective evaluation.
- DCorrect
Here is the missing link: objective evaluation requires the possibility of discussing aesthetic value. The author offers a limit on that discussion as a reason for limiting objective evaluation. D makes the discussion relevant in the required way.
If objective evaluation could proceed without any possibility of discussing aesthetic value, the premise about when such discussion is possible wouldn't establish the claimed restriction on evaluation. That's why identifying the actual conclusion matters. We aren't trying to prove that people can or cannot discuss a poem; we're examining the use of that discussion requirement to support a claim about objective evaluation.
- E
“Best accomplished” asks how to evaluate literature most effectively, and “more than two” adds a group-size preference. Neither supplies the required connection between objective evaluation and discussing aesthetic value. The passage refers to the possibility of agreement by at least two readers, not an ideal discussion size.
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