PrepTest 136, Section 2, Question 9
In a party game, one person leaves the(63 more words not shown)
The example presented above most(9 more words not shown)
- AThe presumption that(15 more words not shown)
- BOne is less(20 more words not shown)
- CDreams are often(9 more words not shown)
- DInterpreting another person's(11 more words not shown)
- EPeople often invent(11 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
There was no dream to reconstruct. Yet the player ends up with a story that makes sense.
Imagine asking, “Were there animals?” or “Was it a nightmare?” The other players might alternate yes and no according to their arbitrary rule. Their answers aren't reporting events from someone's dream, but the questioner believes there is an underlying story to uncover and tries to fit the answers together.
The result is usually coherent and ingenious: it hangs together and shows some creativity. We aren't being given an argument that needs attacking. We're being shown how a person can make sense out of material that wasn't supplied as a meaningful narrative.
What we’re looking for
For the proposition that best fits, I'd look for that idea: expecting a story to make sense can lead someone to create the sense they expect to find.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
“Imbue it with” means give it the quality in question. The player assumes that the answers reflect an ordered story, then gives them order by constructing a coherent narrative. The example fits A's modest claim that an expectation of coherence can lead someone to supply it.
- B
This compares how often people reach a false understanding with how often they make no sense of something. We don't have that comparison. The player could certainly be wrong in believing the invented narrative reconstructs an actual dream. But the example doesn't establish B's claim about which kind of outcome is less likely.
- C
We haven't examined actual dreams. No one in the game related one. A story assembled from arbitrary answers therefore doesn't tell us whether real dreams often have coherent structures or consist of disconnected images.
- D
This states a requirement for interpreting another person's dream. The example supplies neither an actual dream nor evidence that treating it as a coherent narrative is required for interpretation. It shows what can happen when someone thinks a dream exists but is actually constructing a story.
- E
The player does invent a clever, coherent story, but not to explain the player's behavior to other people. The task is to reconstruct someone else's supposed dream. The purpose added by E doesn't fit the example.
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