PrepTest 151, Section 3, Question 18
An analysis of the language in social media(58 more words not shown)
The reasoning in the argument(15 more words not shown)
- Apeople’s overall moods(15 more words not shown)
- Bmany people who(17 more words not shown)
- Cthe frequency in(25 more words not shown)
- Dthe number of(18 more words not shown)
- Emost of the(19 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Happy words don't necessarily mean a happy person.
Someone could write an upbeat post while feeling miserable. So when the author moves from words associated with positive moods to people's actual moods, I'd want to know whether that wording reliably tracks how the writers feel. The observed pattern in language can be real even if that interpretation is wrong.
What we’re looking for
That's my initial prediction for the flaw: the words may not reveal the mood. The passage gives us language that becomes less positive and then more positive across the day, and uses it to tell a story about a typical person's emotional ups and downs.
Working the answers
- A
Moods changing across a week could coexist with moods changing during each day. This answer doesn't challenge the inference from daily posting patterns to a person's daily mood. It describes a different time scale without explaining why the claimed within-day pattern would be misleading.
- B
Many neutral posts could exist alongside the reported average pattern in positive language. B doesn't tell us how those neutral posts are distributed through the day or what their writers feel. It doesn't by itself show why the measured pattern misrepresents a typical person's changing mood.
- C
This starts close to my concern by questioning what social-media language indicates. But the other side of the comparison is language in other forms of communication, not mood. Someone could use different words online and on the phone while either, both, or neither reflected their feelings. C doesn't supply the connection to mood that my objection questioned.
- D
Equal numbers of morning and evening messages don't establish that the same people wrote them or that their words reflect their feelings. The conclusion concerns a person's mood changing, not a change in the total volume of messages. D doesn't identify the relevant problem.
- ECorrect
This exposes a different problem: we may be watching different people at different times. Imagine one group posting cheerful messages about morning yoga and another group posting cheerful plans to visit a casino in the evening. Those posts don't show that the morning writers went through an afternoon slump and then cheered up again. They may not have posted again at all.
Even if each message accurately reflects its writer's mood, combining different groups' messages doesn't establish one person's path through the day. E says the evening posts mostly come from people who rarely post in the morning, making that problem concrete. It doesn't prove nobody has the proposed mood cycle. It shows why this changing collection of messages doesn't establish that a typical individual does.
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