PrepTest 150, Section 4, Question 10
Common sense suggests that we know our own(462 more words not shown)
Based on the passage, the(38 more words not shown)
- AIt constitutes a(9 more words not shown)
- BIt has often(4 more words not shown)
- CIt was the(8 more words not shown)
- DIt seems to(7 more words not shown)
- EIt is not(7 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Pay attention to “perilously close.” The writer says the psychologists risk sounding as though people infer their thoughts solely from observing their external behavior, then immediately explains why their arguments don't commit them to that view.
What we’re looking for
That is a warning followed by a way around the problem. It suggests the writer considers the external-behavior-only position difficult to defend. We're evaluating that narrow position, not the broader claim that awareness of our thoughts is inferential.
Working the answers
- A
The writer doesn't say this view would make scientific study of thinking impossible. Its scientific consequences aren't the reason given for distancing the psychologists from it.
- B
No history of psychologists misunderstanding the position appears. The writer distinguishes a troubling implication from the view these psychologists actually need to hold; that's not evidence that psychologists have often misunderstood it.
- C
Nothing says the position used to prevail or that recent experiments overturned it. This invents a history of the view.
- D
“Basically sound” doesn't fit the warning that the psychologists come perilously close to it. The writer then takes care to show that their account can avoid the position by allowing internal evidence.
- ECorrect
The warning and the immediate effort to avoid the claim support treating it as intellectually indefensible. The writer doesn't give a separate, extended refutation; the evaluative wording tells us how the position is regarded.
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