PrepTest 129, Section 3, Question 21
Sociologist: The more technologically advanced a society is,(43 more words not shown)
The claim that the more(25 more words not shown)
- AIt is a(18 more words not shown)
- BIt is offered(24 more words not shown)
- CIt is a(19 more words not shown)
- DIt is a(24 more words not shown)
- EIt is an(18 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
More experience with technology leads to more resistance to new technology? That initially sounds surprising. I might have expected people accustomed to technology to welcome more of it. Perhaps they are already satisfied with what they have, but let's see what explanation the sociologist offers.
The explanation is awareness of the drawbacks. People in more technologically advanced societies have greater awareness of what can go wrong. Imagine sitting with a partner but repeatedly checking a phone. The device makes communication easier in one respect while interfering with the conversation right in front of you. Experiencing that cost could make someone more cautious about the next innovation.
The point about human relations supplies a specific kind of drawback people recognize. The broader awareness claim explains the opening pattern: greater familiarity brings awareness of costs, and that helps explain greater resistance. It also explains why the sociologist says the pattern is not surprising.
What we’re looking for
We are asked for the role of that awareness claim. I'd describe it as the explanation of the resistance, rather than as another description of the resistance itself.
Working the answers
- A
The statement about effects on human relations specifies the kind of drawback people recognize. It does not establish the broader comparison that people in more advanced societies have greater awareness. That comparison is offered to explain the opening pattern. A treats the particular elaboration as the evidence from which the general awareness claim is derived.
- BCorrect
Greater awareness of technology's drawbacks is offered as the reason people in more technologically advanced societies resist innovations more strongly. The claim makes the initially surprising association understandable: experience with technology includes experience with its costs.
- C
“Extremely poor” goes beyond the argument. The sociologist says technologies deeply affect the quality of human relations, in the context of explaining awareness of drawbacks. The author does not conclude that human relations in advanced societies are extremely poor. Calling the statement a premise does not fix the incorrect claim C says it supports.
- D
The passage does not claim that greater resistance makes adjustment to innovations more difficult. It explains why resistance occurs, not what effect resistance has on adjustment. D gives the awareness claim a basis that never appears in the argument.
- E
The author says sophisticated technologies affect human relations, not that resistance to technology does so. And the awareness claim is the broad explanation of the resistance; the subsequent reference to human relations gives a specific illustration of a drawback. E switches both the relevant claim and its role.
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