PrepTest 156, Section 4, Question 4
Overcrowding inclines human beings toward aggressive, competitive behavior.(38 more words not shown)
Each of the following, if(6 more words not shown)
- AThe frequency and(16 more words not shown)
- BThe frequency and(20 more words not shown)
- CSome forms of(18 more words not shown)
- DWith respect to(18 more words not shown)
- EMost mammals inhabiting(16 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A polite person can become much less polite in a traffic jam. I can see the proposed connection between crowding and aggression. But is the crowding doing all the work? People at a sporting event might be excited, and drivers might be reacting to danger or frustration. Those are other possibilities to keep in mind.
The conclusion makes a bigger jump: more people in the world will mean more severe and frequent war and crime. More people doesn't automatically mean more crowding. What if population growth occurs in sparsely populated areas, with people spread out rather than packed into cities? Imagine more people moving to rural areas or Alaska. We would need to know how the growing population is distributed.
And does aggressive behavior by an individual in traffic tell us how nations will behave toward each other? That comparison needs support too.
What we’re looking for
This is a strengthen-except question. Four answers will help some part of the reasoning, and one will not. The supporting answers don't have to prove the conclusion or fix every problem. Look for the choice that gives us no additional reason to connect population growth with increasing aggression.
Working the answers
- A
This helps connect two things the argument had treated as interchangeable: a larger world population and more overcrowding. If they have generally risen together in the past, we have some reason to expect population growth to bring the crowding the argument needs. That pattern isn't a guarantee, but strengthening doesn't require one.
- B
This supplies a historical pattern connecting population growth with the very outcomes in the conclusion: more frequent and severe war and crime. Other explanations could still account for the pattern. Nevertheless, seeing the two increase together offers some support for the proposed relationship; we aren't being asked for proof of the cause.
- CCorrect
Aggression sometimes happens without overcrowding. That doesn't give us a reason to expect population growth to increase aggression. It also doesn't necessarily refute the argument: overcrowding could make aggression worse even if aggression has other causes. For this question, failing to strengthen is enough.
- D
This supports the use of rush-hour traffic as an example of overcrowding's effects on behavior. That helps the first part of the argument. It doesn't establish that crowding is the only relevant cause or that individual drivers behave like nations, but it makes one piece of the evidence more relevant.
- E
A similar pattern in most mammals lends some support to the proposed connection between population density and aggression. Evidence about other mammals doesn't settle what will happen to human societies. Still, it gives us another reason to take the crowding explanation seriously, which is enough for this answer to strengthen.
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