PrepTest 129, Section 3, Question 16
Critic: As modern methods of communication and transportation(46 more words not shown)
The critic's statements most closely(8 more words not shown)
- AThe fast pace(13 more words not shown)
- BThe disadvantages of(6 more words not shown)
- CChanges in people's(8 more words not shown)
- DThe perception of(15 more words not shown)
- EChanges in people's(7 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Phones let us contact distant people immediately, and transportation lets us get places much faster. I can understand the thought that these changes speed up everyday life.
Do they create feelings of instability? Maybe, though I can imagine benefits too. Being able to call family several states away could make life feel more stable. We might also wonder whether people have always felt rushed, even before these technologies. Those are possible questions about the critic's account.
What we’re looking for
But the task is to identify an assessment that conforms to what the critic says. We should describe the account rather than try to disprove it. The critic connects improvements in communication and transportation with a faster life and changes in how we feel. My prediction is a broad claim that technological changes can affect people's feelings about their lives.
Working the answers
- A
This is tempting because achieving goals sounds like achieving what we want. The problem is not that paraphrase; it is the move from feeling pressed for time to actually having greater difficulty achieving a goal.
The critic says the faster pace makes us feel as though we lack enough time. Someone could feel rushed and still accomplish the same goals just as readily. A claims an actual obstacle to achievement that the passage does not establish. It would be much closer if it preserved the claim about how achievement feels.
- B
The critic describes troubling feelings, but does not compare all the disadvantages with all the advantages of technological progress. Benefits such as easier contact with family could outweigh those feelings. B adds an overall judgment that the critic's account never makes.
- CCorrect
Technological changes can produce changes in people's feelings about life. That is the relationship described: better communication and transportation speed up life, and the speed creates feelings of impermanence, instability, and insufficient time. “Can result” stays within the modest claim supported by this example.
- D
The phrase “what we think we want” leaves room for uncertainty about our desires, but it does not say perceived impermanence makes that uncertainty worse. The critic describes feeling short of time to achieve things, not a demonstrated increase in difficulty knowing which things we want.
- E
This runs in the other direction. It says changes in feelings create a need for technological progress. The passage describes technological changes contributing to feelings. It does not explain why the technologies were needed or developed.
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