PrepTest 147, Section 1, Question 20

Working the answers

• A

  A highly technological society could have no demagogues. Making people more susceptible to a kind of exploitation doesn't guarantee someone will come along to exploit them. Nothing says every society with electronic media must contain a political demagogue, so A can fit the facts.

• B

  The description tells us a tactic demagogues use. It doesn't reserve that tactic exclusively for them. Other people could also exploit others by presenting emotionally loaded language as an objective account. That possibility doesn't contradict anything we're told.

• C

  The passage doesn't compare how easily highly emotional and less emotional people are exploited. That comparison might hold, or it might not. Since the facts don't rule it out, it remains a statement that could be true rather than the exception we're seeking.

• D
  Correct

  The mere presence of orderly government isn't the same as critical thinking. D says government order alone provides adequate protection, even without establishing critical thinking. That conflicts with the sociologist's claim that critical thinking is the only adequate protection against demagogues. We can't accept both the exclusive requirement and a proposed substitute that works merely by being present.

• E

  This concerns protection against losing media freedoms, not protection against political demagogues. We aren't told that these are the same outcome. Electronic communications could protect media freedoms while also encouraging uncritical thinking. The passage doesn't establish E, but it doesn't contradict it either, which is enough to eliminate it on this question.