PrepTest 130, Section 4, Question 24
The genuine creative genius is someone who is(45 more words not shown)
The conclusion of the argument(10 more words not shown)
- APeople become angry(12 more words not shown)
- BPeople who enjoy(9 more words not shown)
- CPeople tend to(14 more words not shown)
- DPeople who anger(9 more words not shown)
- EPeople who anger(12 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
The author describes creative geniuses as dissatisfied with unthinking agreement with popular beliefs. That is different from saying they reject every popular belief. Their objection is to accepting a view merely out of habit.
We are then given a path from that dissatisfaction to seeking controversy, and from seeking controversy to enjoying demonstrations that popular views are false. But why does that make the majority angry? Someone might welcome a correction. Suppose a belief I hold about evolution is mistaken. I might appreciate someone showing me the error so that I can understand the world better.
What we’re looking for
The conclusion is the claim that these innovators tend to anger the majority. To make it follow, we need to connect the last supported description—enjoying demonstrations that popular viewpoints are false—to that response from other people.
Working the answers
- A
This makes the dissatisfied people themselves angry. The conclusion says that the innovators anger the majority: other people are angry with them. A changes whose anger needs to be established.
- BCorrect
This gives us the missing connection. The innovators tend to seek controversy; controversy seekers enjoy demonstrating the falsehood of popular viewpoints; and B says people who enjoy doing that anger the majority. The supported chain now reaches the conclusion.
- C
Holding an unpopular belief is not the behavior the argument has established. The premises concern dissatisfaction with habitual agreement and enjoyment of demonstrating falsehoods. They do not tell us that the innovators hold the particular kind of minority belief C requires. The answer also does not directly connect that demonstrated behavior to angering the majority.
- D
This begins with people who anger the majority and tells us what they enjoy. We need to start with what the innovators enjoy and establish whom they anger. A rule that runs from the desired conclusion back to the known description does not get us to that conclusion.
- E
This also starts with people who anger the majority, then says they are dissatisfied with habitual agreement. Knowing that the innovators are dissatisfied does not establish that they belong to the group who anger the majority. E gives a feature of that group without showing that everyone with the feature is in it.
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