PrepTest 141, Section 4, Question 19
Young people believe efforts to reduce pollution, poverty,(51 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(8 more words not shown)
- AMotivating people to(24 more words not shown)
- BEnabling people to(21 more words not shown)
- COptimism about the(21 more words not shown)
- DIf future generations(15 more words not shown)
- EThe current prevalence(19 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
If people think a goal is impossible, I can see why they'd stop trying. That loss of effort could make a bad future more likely, even if the original pessimism wasn't justified.
The author wants to interrupt that process. Instead of allowing children to believe that improvement is impossible, we should help them believe that better futures are possible. The recommendation makes sense as an attempt to preserve their willingness to work on the problems.
One practical question occurs to me: can we actually change those beliefs? We aren't given a method for doing it. But we don't need to invent a more precise objection before looking at this necessary-assumption question. We can ask what the recommended change in belief has to accomplish for the author's reasoning to work.
What we’re looking for
The stated goal is preventing a loss of motivation. Keep that goal next to the proposed action—enabling belief in a better future—and test whether each answer supplies something this recommendation needs.
Working the answers
- A
This starts by motivating people and says their beliefs will improve as a result. The author's proposal goes the other way: improve the outlook so people don't lose motivation. Motivation might affect beliefs too, but that additional direction isn't something this recommendation requires.
- BCorrect
The proposed change in outlook must help prevent the motivation loss we're trying to address. Suppose enabling belief in a better future did nothing to protect motivation. Then the author's reason for making that recommendation would fall apart. B connects the action to its stated purpose without promising that every social problem will be solved.
- C
We aren't told that the optimistic outlook would be an illusion. The author could believe better futures really are possible. The argument therefore doesn't require a broad judgment that false optimism is preferable to pessimism. It needs a useful connection between outlook and motivation, not a defense of deceiving people.
- D
Believing improvement is possible doesn't guarantee the elimination of pollution, poverty, and war. People could stay motivated, work hard, and achieve only partial improvement. The argument needs hope to help preserve effort; it doesn't require hope to ensure complete success.
- E
We don't need an account of how earlier generations caused the current problems. Those problems could have arisen through many different processes. The recommendation concerns how people's beliefs now affect their willingness to work toward a better future, whatever caused the problems in the first place.
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