PrepTest 147, Section 1, Question 11
Nick: The Pincus family and their construction company(75 more words not shown)
The dialogue provides the most(11 more words not shown)
- Aloyalty should sometimes(7 more words not shown)
- Bthe Pincus family(16 more words not shown)
- Cthe acceptance of(11 more words not shown)
- Dthe university should(16 more words not shown)
- Ethe Pincus family's(9 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A donation isn't automatically a promise of special treatment. What if the competing company can build a better library for less money? The Pincus family's generosity doesn't by itself settle whom the university should hire.
What we’re looking for
For the disagreement question, compare what each speaker thinks the donations oblige the university to do. Nick thinks the family's financial support creates a duty of loyalty: the university shouldn't give this contract to the family's main competitor. Pedro says accepting a charitable donation doesn't create an obligation to grant privileges, so the best bid should win.
Working the answers
- A
Nick clearly wants loyalty considered here. But Pedro doesn't say loyalty should never matter in any business decision. He could value loyalty in some circumstances while denying that a donation obliges the university to favor this company. To establish a disagreement over whether loyalty should sometimes matter, we'd need Pedro to reject it in every case, and he doesn't.
- B
Neither speaker tells us why the family donated. Nick could believe the gifts were completely sincere and still think the university owes loyalty in return. Pedro could suspect the family wanted favors and still deny that accepting the gifts creates any duty to provide them. The donors' motives are different from the university's obligations.
- CCorrect
Nick treats the donations as creating a special obligation: giving the job to the family's main competitor would betray a friend of the university. Pedro directly rejects that connection. In his view, accepting a charitable contribution doesn't require special privileges for the donor. This gives us a supported yes from Nick and a supported no from Pedro.
- D
They aren't comparing longtime donors with new donors, and gratitude isn't the same as preferential treatment in awarding a contract. Pedro can be grateful to the family while thinking it should compete on the same terms as everyone else. Neither speaker establishes the proposed ranking of whom the university should thank more.
- E
We don't know whose bid was most competitive. Pedro states how the winner should be chosen, not which company satisfies that rule. Nick doesn't compare the bids either. They could agree about which bid was best while disagreeing about whether loyalty should prevent the university from choosing the family's main competitor.
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