PrepTest 141, Section 2, Question 7

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A

  The conclusion dismisses the accusation, but the reason concerns unjust laws and morality. It says the defendant's actions may be illegal without being immoral. Our argument doesn't defend Party X by challenging the fairness of the law. It points to Party Y's own past misconduct.

• B

  This is tempting because the plaintiff, like Party Y, has engaged in similar conduct. There's the hypocrisy we were looking for. But look at what the answer concludes: the plaintiff is hypocritical. It stops there.

  The original goes further and dismisses the accusation against the other party. Showing that an accuser is hypocritical doesn't show the accusation is unfounded. B has our argument's complaint about the accuser, but not its unsupported conclusion about the accusation.

• C
  Correct

  The plaintiff accuses the defendant, matching Party Y accusing Party X. Then the plaintiff's own similar actions are used to conclude that the accusation is ill founded. That's the same mistake. The statement about courts recognizing the conduct as illegal doesn't fix the leap: the plaintiff could have behaved badly and still be right about the defendant.

• D

  This dismisses the accusation because of its timing and supposed purpose of stirring up controversy. That's an attack on the accuser's motive, not evidence that the accuser committed similar violations. A self-interested accusation could still be accurate, but D reaches its conclusion through a different kind of criticism.

• E

  Here the accusation concerns the defendant's motives for voting, and the response says the accuser should address the defendant's arguments instead. It doesn't point to the accuser having engaged in similar conduct. We need past misconduct by the accuser used to dismiss the accusation, and that relationship is missing.