PrepTest 157, Section 1, Question 12
Grammarians of the prescriptive school take it as(452 more words not shown)
The passage most strongly suggests(11 more words not shown)
- ADescriptivists are motivated(13 more words not shown)
- BDescriptivists adhere to(14 more words not shown)
- CDescriptivists fail to(12 more words not shown)
- DDescriptivists are generally(15 more words not shown)
- EDescriptivists fail to(9 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Descriptivists accuse prescriptivists of imposing elite habits. How do prescriptivists answer? A shared language standard, they say, makes the free exchange of ideas easier, so the aim is inclusion rather than exclusion.
What we’re looking for
That turns the equality objection around. If a common standard helps people participate, resisting that standard could work against the egalitarian goal. We want that criticism of the descriptivists, not an invented motive or a general contest over who does better science.
Working the answers
- A
No animosity is attributed to descriptivists. Disagreement with their argument doesn't establish that they are motivated by hostility rather than a desire to study language.
- B
The response to the scientific objection doesn't rank how rigorously the two schools follow the scientific method. This adds a broad comparison absent from the account.
- CCorrect
Prescriptivists argue that standard usage supports inclusion and the free exchange of ideas. Their response implies that descriptivists overlook how opposing such a standard may undermine the very equality they invoke. The reasoning concerns the effect of the approach, not whether descriptivists consciously oppose equality.
- D
The data example gives no reason to think descriptivists are unaware of the Latin origin. They decline to let that origin control current English usage. Knowing a fact and treating it as decisive are different.
- E
Prescriptivists are not described as claiming that descriptivists' empirical observations generally favor prescriptivism. The closing response concerns what shared standards can accomplish, not that sweeping claim about the evidence.
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