PrepTest 137, Section 3, Question 18
Activities that pose risks to life are acceptable(27 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AA door-to-door salesperson(27 more words not shown)
- BA smoker subjects(27 more words not shown)
- CA motorcyclist rides(22 more words not shown)
- DMotor vehicles are(28 more words not shown)
- EA nation requires(21 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Start with the people bearing the risk. For each person, the principle allows two routes: an otherwise unavailable net benefit, or a voluntary choice to bear the risk. We don't need both.
Imagine a risky treatment that offers a patient a net benefit no safer treatment can provide. That illustrates the first route. Now imagine someone knowingly choosing a dangerous climb of Mount Everest. Even without establishing a net benefit, that person's voluntary acceptance illustrates the second route under this principle.
What we’re looking for
‘Each person’ matters. A benefit to one person doesn't automatically justify imposing a life-threatening risk on someone else. As we apply the rule, ask who faces the risk and whether that person meets either condition. We are applying the stated principle, not deciding which activities we personally approve of.
Working the answers
- A
The salesperson voluntarily declines to buy a new car. But the choice doesn't explicitly establish a risk to life that the salesperson knowingly chooses to bear. A voluntary purchasing decision isn't as direct a match as voluntary acceptance of the specific life-threatening risk described in C. We shouldn't have to supply that missing connection.
- B
A small risk isn't one of the principle's stated exceptions. If people at the meeting bear a risk to life, we still need either their voluntary acceptance or an otherwise unavailable net benefit to each of them. Saying smoke dissipates quickly doesn't establish either. It addresses how large the risk is instead of the conditions for accepting it.
- CCorrect
The risk is explicitly fatal injury to the motorcyclist, and the motorcyclist willingly incurs it. That directly satisfies the voluntary-risk route for the person who bears the stated risk. We don't also need to prove a net benefit, because the principle gives the two routes as alternatives.
- D
Benefits to all vehicle users aren't necessarily benefits to everyone exposed to pollution. Someone who doesn't use a vehicle could still breathe the polluted air. The principle concerns each risk bearer, not just the people enjoying the activity.
D also doesn't establish that the benefit is a net benefit unavailable without those risks, or that every affected person accepts the risks voluntarily. Cheap, convenient travel alone doesn't meet the rule's full requirements.
- E
The principle evaluates activities that pose risks to life. This answer expressly says there is no such risk. That leaves the national-service policy outside the rule's stated scope; it doesn't let us infer that every policy with no risk to life is acceptable.
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