PrepTest 144, Section 2, Question 3
Doris: I've noticed that everyone involved in student(53 more words not shown)
Doris and Zack disagree over(1 more words not shown)
- Astudents should be(2 more words not shown)
- Bstudents should be(7 more words not shown)
- Cbecoming involved in(6 more words not shown)
- Dall students who(7 more words not shown)
- Estudents will not(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Did student government make these students outspoken, or did outspoken students choose student government?
Doris observes that everyone involved is outspoken, then recommends involvement as a way to make other students more outspoken. But imagine encouraging shy students to join. They might become more comfortable speaking up. Or they might remain quiet and feel uncomfortable. The fact that the current members are outspoken doesn't settle what joining would do to someone else.
Zack points to the other explanation: the students joined because they were already outspoken. He then says encouraging other students to join will do nothing to make them more outspoken.
What we’re looking for
We don't have to decide which account is right. The disagreement is clear even if neither speaker has proved the causal claim. Doris thinks involvement will make students more outspoken; Zack says it won't. That's the yes-versus-no split to look for.
Working the answers
- A
Whether students should be more outspoken is different from whether student government makes them that way. Doris offers a way to pursue that goal, but Zack doesn't say the goal is bad. His objection concerns whether the proposed method works.
- B
Zack might still want students to join. Perhaps he thinks student government teaches useful organizational skills. Rejecting Doris's reason for encouraging involvement doesn't mean rejecting involvement for every possible reason. We don't have his opposition to this broader recommendation.
- CCorrect
Doris recommends student government as a way to make students more outspoken, so she agrees that involvement has that effect. Zack explicitly says encouraging involvement will do nothing to make students more outspoken. They take opposite positions on the same proposed effect.
- D
Zack does not dispute Doris's observation about the current members. He explains why those students joined: they were outspoken already. Accepting that the members are outspoken is compatible with disagreeing about what made them that way.
- E
Neither speaker says student government is the only way students could become more outspoken. Even Doris could believe that mock trial or a singing group also helps students speak up. Her claim that this activity would help doesn't establish that it is required. We cannot assign the speakers opposite views on a claim neither makes.
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