PrepTest 137, Section 2, Question 22
People often praise poems for their truth.(42 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(28 more words not shown)
- AIt is the(6 more words not shown)
- BIt is a(14 more words not shown)
- CIt is a(10 more words not shown)
- DIt is background(12 more words not shown)
- EIt is a(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Truth is common. Poetic excellence is supposed to rest on something rare. That's the author's reason for rejecting truth as a contributor to a poem's aesthetic merit.
What we’re looking for
We might question that reasoning: something common could contribute to a good poem without being enough to make every true statement an excellent poem. But the role question isn't asking us to repair the argument. It asks what the final claim about rarity is doing. Pair that claim with the observation that most people's commonplace beliefs are true. Together, they're meant to support the earlier claim that praising a poem's aesthetic merit for its truth is misguided.
Working the answers
- A
The main conclusion is the claim that it is misguided to treat expressing true propositions as contributing to a poem's aesthetic merit. The statement about rarity gives us part of the author's reason for that conclusion. Being the final sentence doesn't make it the final point the author is trying to establish.
- BCorrect
The rarity claim works with the other premise about commonplace beliefs. If truth is common, and the basis of poetic excellence must be rare, the author thinks truth can't provide the relevant basis. That is the intended support for rejecting truth as a contributor to aesthetic merit.
Notice the roles of both premises: one places truth on the common side, and the other excludes common features as the basis of poetic excellence. The argument uses them together.
- C
It isn't the sole support. Without the premise connecting truth to commonplace beliefs, the rarity claim wouldn't tell us why truth in particular is the wrong basis. The author needs the other premise to bring truth under that criticism.
- D
Background information might introduce the topic without helping establish the conclusion. This claim does more: it supplies the standard by which the author rejects truth as the relevant basis of excellence. Removing it would remove a central part of the offered reasoning.
- E
The author doesn't try to explain why the basis of poetic excellence must be rare. That claim is used as a starting point to criticize the role assigned to truth. A claim used to explain or support another claim isn't itself necessarily the thing being explained.
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