PrepTest 154, Section 1, Question 1
Rhett: Otto gives me a ride to work(72 more words not shown)
The dialogue provides the most(11 more words not shown)
- AOtto requires Rhett(10 more words not shown)
- BRhett should have(6 more words not shown)
- Cgiving Rhett a(7 more words not shown)
- DRhett is entitled(10 more words not shown)
- ERhett could divert(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
He's giving you a ride every morning. Helping with gas sounds reasonable. Why does Rhett think he should get the ride for free?
His answer is that Otto drives right past his house anyway. Let's accept that picking Rhett up doesn't increase Otto's fuel bill. Does that settle who should contribute to it? Otto is still supplying something Rhett benefits from. The cost could stay the same while sharing that cost remains a reasonable expectation.
Barbara tests Rhett's reasoning with a different benefit: the heat in her unused spare room. If Rhett could take that heat without raising her bill, would he automatically be entitled to it? Calling his logic flawed tells us why she raises the comparison. She is challenging the idea that an unchanged expense means someone else gets the benefit for free.
What we’re looking for
For the disagreement question, keep the fact and its supposed consequence separate. Rhett says he shouldn't have to pay because he adds no fuel expense. Barbara objects to that justification for a free ride. We want whether Rhett should help pay, not whether Otto's fuel bill increases.
Working the answers
- A
Otto's expectation is part of Rhett's opening account: Otto wants him to help pay. Rhett objects to having to meet that expectation; he doesn't deny that Otto has it. Barbara doesn't dispute Otto's demand either. Whether Otto asks for payment and whether that payment is justified are different questions.
- BCorrect
Rhett says he shouldn't have to help pay Otto's fuel expenses. Barbara challenges that position through the heating comparison: benefiting without adding to someone's expenses doesn't automatically entitle you to the benefit for free. This captures the dispute about what Rhett should pay.
- C
Barbara doesn't claim that the ride increases Otto's fuel expenses. Her comparison even lets Rhett imagine taking the heat without increasing her expenses. She is questioning what follows from an unchanged cost, not establishing that the cost actually rises. We have no opposing views on the fuel bill itself.
- D
We know why Barbara raises the warm air: she considers the claimed entitlement a problem for Rhett's reasoning. But Rhett never responds to that example. Maybe he would claim the heat; maybe he would find a difference between the cases. We cannot assign him an opinion he hasn't expressed.
- E
Neither speaker's position establishes a disagreement about whether redirecting the heat is possible. Barbara presents it as an imagined condition: if Rhett could do it without raising her expenses. Rhett says nothing about heating. A hypothetical used to test his reasoning is not a factual dispute about how the houses are heated.
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