PrepTest 127, Section 1, Question 4
Columnist: Donating items to charity may be a(21 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- AThe argument takes(10 more words not shown)
- BThe argument attacks(13 more words not shown)
- CThe argument takes(11 more words not shown)
- DThe argument generalizes(7 more words not shown)
- EThe argument takes(9 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Sometimes giving things away is generous; sometimes it is practical. If I have clothes I no longer want, taking them to charity might simply be easier than disposing of them. The columnist leaves room for that by saying a donation may be a sign of generosity.
The next step is harder to accept. Most donors give only from time to time, so the columnist concludes that the generosity is rarely a permanent trait.
Do I have to be donating something every day to remain a generous person? I might give away clothes in the spring, help a neighbor in the summer, and donate again in the fall. The gaps between those donations do not show that my character keeps changing. There may be other ways I express generosity, and even a generous person does not have to be doing something generous at every moment.
What we’re looking for
For the flaw question, keep that difference in view: an occasional action versus a lasting quality. The columnist treats the absence of a current display of generosity as though it showed the absence of generosity itself.
Working the answers
- A
The argument concerns whether generosity lasts, not whether generous people rank above everyone else in virtue. Someone could think generosity is a modest virtue and still make the columnist's mistake about how long it persists.
- B
The columnist does not identify people with different values and dismiss them for having those values. The reasoning instead draws a conclusion about the permanence of donors' generosity from how often they donate. B describes a different kind of criticism.
- CCorrect
To manifest a trait is to show it through behavior. The columnist assumes that generosity is present only while it is being shown, so intermittent donations supposedly mean intermittent generosity. But a person can remain generous between acts of giving, just as our example's donor can retain that quality between spring and fall. The schedule of the donations does not establish the schedule of the character trait.
- D
No limited group of observed donors is described as the basis for a generalization. The statement about most donors is given as the premise. The flaw is what the columnist infers from intermittent donations, not an established problem with how a sample was selected or how large it was.
- E
“May be a sign” does not mean most donations arise from generosity. The columnist allows that a donation can indicate generosity and then questions whether that generosity is lasting. The argument does not require a majority of donors to have that motive; many could donate for convenience, as in the unwanted-clothes example.
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