PrepTest 142, Section 3, Question 21

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A

  This identifies unnecessary features as a practical obstacle and recommends fewer of them. It does not challenge an underlying belief on which an established practice is based. Passage A revises a justification for punishment, not simply a design with distracting extras.

• B

  This is tempting because evidence challenges a model's assumption of rational behavior. But the conclusion concerns the model's expected predictive ability, rather than recommending replacement of a practice based on the mistaken assumption. The issue is the kind of conclusion, not merely the phrase in theory.

• C
  Correct

  The teaching program rests on mistaken beliefs about what children can understand, so it should be replaced. The mistaken view of children's capacities matches the challenged view of free moral choice; replacing the program matches revising the retributive approach to punishment.

• D

  This applies an accepted requirement for justified civil disobedience. It does not argue that the requirement itself rests on a mistaken premise and should be replaced. The direction of the reasoning is different.

• E

  This uses addicted smokers to distinguish autonomy from full behavioral control. Those subjects sound similar to A's, but the argument does not move from a defective assumption underlying a practice to a recommendation to change that practice.