PrepTest 139, Section 4, Question 14

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A

  The speaker enjoys a party and uses that current enjoyment to infer a prior desire to attend. That may be questionable: the speaker could have been pleasantly surprised. But it doesn't start with an outcome that regularly follows an action and conclude that producing that outcome is the action's purpose.

• B

  The speaker treats fear of skiing as evidence of not wanting to learn. Someone could be frightened and still want the skill, so there is room to object. The mistake concerns fear and desire, not a regular consequence being mistaken for the reason someone acts.

• C
  Correct

  Eating pizza always produces a stomachache for this person, and the speaker concludes that getting the stomachache is the reason for eating pizza. That's the same bad move. A result of the activity becomes its supposed purpose.

  Maybe the person eats pizza because it tastes good or makes them full, accepting the stomachache as an unwanted consequence. Likewise, pleasure could accompany getting something we want without being what we fundamentally wanted. The outcomes differ in how pleasant they are, but the mistake about why someone acts matches.

• D

  This uses a pattern of past enjoyment to predict enjoyment on another similar occasion. It doesn't claim that pleasure was the reason for going to the parties, much less the only underlying desire. Predicting a repeated result is different from turning that result into a motive.

• E

  The speaker needs hot dogs to enjoy soccer games and assumes the same requirement applies to basketball games. The questionable step transfers a condition from one activity to another. It doesn't infer that obtaining an outcome is the purpose of performing the activity.