PrepTest 156, Section 1, Question 11
Passage A What public interest is served by(488 more words not shown)
Passage A(241 more words not shown)
Passage B(255 more words not shown)
The author of passage B(7 more words not shown)
- Aidentify an area(9 more words not shown)
- Bsuggest a similarity(9 more words not shown)
- Cmake a comparison(11 more words not shown)
- Dpoint to an(9 more words not shown)
- Ehighlight the importance(5 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Why bring national defense into a discussion of art? B is drawing a contrast. National defense is described as a shared benefit that an individual cannot buy separately; B illustrates this through the impossibility of purchasing personal national protection (Passage B, paragraph 3). An aesthetic experience, by contrast, can be chosen and purchased individually.
What we’re looking for
That distinction explains why B might accept public provision of defense while rejecting arts subsidies. We aren't being asked whether military spending is popular.
Working the answers
- A
No disagreement about defense spending is described. People may argue about it in real life, but the comparison does not depend on that debate.
- B
The point is a difference: culture is “not like national defense.” Both involve spending, but B uses the example to distinguish what needs collective provision from what individuals can buy.
- CCorrect
Defense is the comparison case that, in B's account, cannot be acquired privately. The following sentence contrasts that with buying one's own aesthetic experiences. That is the precise work the example does.
- D
We are not told how much public support defense spending enjoys. Whether people approve of it is different from whether it must be provided collectively.
- E
The example does not praise public subsidies generally. It helps explain why one kind of public spending need not justify another.
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