PrepTest 137, Section 4, Question 20

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A

  Showing that opponents don't favor all the desired policies doesn't establish that this politician would deliver them. The politician could oppose those policies too. More importantly, the sales example connects a particular product to the customer's desires; it doesn't merely criticize competing products.

• B

  This compares one candidate's policies with other candidates' policies and proposes hiding their differences. The comparison we need is between the candidate and what the voter wants. Concealing differences among candidates doesn't show that the proposed choice will satisfy the voter's desires.

• C

  At first, 'convince the voter' sounds like the sales approach. But convince the voter of what? C says the politician's policies are preferable to the voter's own preferred policies. That asks the voter to change what they want.

  The sales example explicitly says the salesperson doesn't change the customer's desires. C therefore breaks the comparison at its central point. We want to offer a way of satisfying the existing preference, not persuade the voter to replace it.

• D

  Good character and an interest in the same issues don't establish support for the same policies. A voter and candidate might both care deeply about education while favoring opposite approaches. D gives attractive qualities without showing that the candidate would deliver the outcome this voter wants.

• E
  Correct

  Voting for this politician is presented as the best way to get the policies the voter already wants adopted. That matches the salesperson's claim that buying this product will satisfy the customer's existing desires.

  The roles line up: the campaign does the persuading, the candidate is the proposed choice, the desired policies are the customer's goal, and voting is the action meant to achieve it. The voter's preferences remain in place throughout the comparison.