PrepTest 128, Section 3, Question 8
Politician: It is widely accepted that because democratic(78 more words not shown)
A logical strategy used in(5 more words not shown)
- Aargue for a(11 more words not shown)
- Breach a general(12 more words not shown)
- Csupport a conclusion(7 more words not shown)
- Dreach a conclusion(15 more words not shown)
- Ereach a conclusion(17 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The first sentence gives us an accepted argument about speech: political debate matters to democracy, and verbal self-expression helps self-governance flourish. Those are reasons to keep a democratic society from interfering with citizens' speech.
But what does this politician want to add? The word “also” signals the move. The politician wants similar protection for clothing and grooming because they, too, can express a person's feelings and convey political messages.
That comparison makes sense as an argument. If personal and political expression justify protecting spoken words, we should consider whether the same reasons apply when the expression uses clothing or appearance instead. The politician carries the accepted rationale from one kind of expression to another.
What we’re looking for
The question asks for the strategy, so I'm looking for an analogy: similar reasons support similar treatment in two cases.
Working the answers
- A
The politician doesn't imagine strict clothing controls and then show that they produce an absurd result. The support comes from a comparison with speech, not from working out the unacceptable consequences of the opposite conclusion.
- B
There is no claim that a theory must be right because nobody has produced a counterexample. The politician supplies positive reasons about expression and political statements. An absence of objections isn't doing the work.
- C
What is widely accepted? The argument for protecting speech. The politician's own conclusion concerns clothing and grooming, and the passage doesn't say that this conclusion is widely accepted. C attaches the popularity claim to the wrong part of the argument.
- DCorrect
Speech and clothing are the analogous cases. Speech conveys personal feelings and political views, and those features support protecting it. Clothing and grooming have similar expressive functions, so the politician argues for similar protection. D captures both the comparison and the similarity in the reasons offered.
- E
The conclusion concerns what democratic societies should do: refrain from strictly controlling clothing and grooming. It doesn't describe what those societies actually do. A society could currently impose such controls, and the politician would still be recommending that it stop.
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