PrepTest 154, Section 4, Question 13
Lindsey: There are, of course, many poets with(55 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(25 more words not shown)
- AIt is a(19 more words not shown)
- BIt is a(9 more words not shown)
- CIt is the(5 more words not shown)
- DIt clarifies a(9 more words not shown)
- EIt is a(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Maybe unhappy people are drawn to poetry. That would be different from poetry making them unhappy.
Before that causal claim, Lindsey gives us a personal observation: the poets Lindsey has met have more often been melancholy, meaning sad. Are those poets typical? Perhaps Lindsey mostly meets poets in a particularly gloomy social circle. That would make the personal sample a questionable guide to all poets.
Lindsey does make the conclusion conditional on the sample being representative. Even if we grant that condition, though, the causal question remains. A pattern among poets doesn't tell us whether writing made them sad or sadness helped draw them to writing. We can question that step without denying the observation.
The final sentence gives Lindsey a reason for believing the proposed direction: an activity as profound and engrossing as writing poetry can be depressing. It's offered to explain how poetry could produce the melancholy. Whether that fully settles our concern is a different question from the one we're asked.
What we’re looking for
We need the role of that final claim. Start with the conclusion: many poets are made melancholy by writing poetry, assuming the sample is representative. The final statement gives a reason to accept that causal explanation. It is support for the conclusion.
Working the answers
- A
Where is the other premise this statement supposedly supports? Saying poetry can be depressing doesn't establish that Lindsey's acquaintances are representative or that they are often sad. It directly helps support the claim that writing poetry makes many poets melancholy. A invents an extra step between this reason and the conclusion.
- B
Lindsey doesn't give evidence to establish that profound, engrossing activities can be depressing. The phrase as everyone knows presents it as something we are expected to accept. B describes a supported claim, but this statement supplies support without receiving its own argument here.
- C
The conclusion is the specific causal claim about many poets: writing poetry makes them melancholy. The final statement about a kind of activity being depressing is offered as a reason for that claim. Its position at the end doesn't make it the conclusion.
- D
Clarifying would mean explaining what the conclusion means. This sentence instead gives us a reason to think it is true: poetry has features that can make an activity depressing. That is an evidential job, not merely a restatement or definition of the claim.
- ECorrect
It directly supports the overall conclusion by offering an account of why writing poetry could make poets melancholy. We don't need to agree that Lindsey has proved the cause. A reason can play the role of a premise even when the argument it supports leaves us unconvinced.
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