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- Wed Mar 30, 2016 6:15 pm
#22638
Complete Question Explanation
Method—AP. The correct answer choice is (A).
The author begins by observing that people would be better off if they “refrained from being impolite” (notice the double negative). The second sentence changes direction (“but”) and makes a counterpoint: passing laws that force everyone to be polite is not a good idea. Why not? Well, according to the last sentence, enforcing such laws would create even more problems than does impoliteness. Because the last sentence supports the sentence that precedes it, the last sentence functions as the premise for the argument’s conclusion:
Note the absence of any premise or conclusion indicators here—your job is to determine which claim plays a supportive role, and which claim is the one being supported, without relying on keywords to point you in the right direction. We should also point out that, given the nature of your task, diagramming the conditional relationships in the stimulus would be a waste of time. Focus on the argument from a structural point of view only.
Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. The statement referenced in the question stem is a conclusion, because the cost/benefit analysis outlined in the last sentence serves to explain why passing law that force everyone to be polite is not a good idea.
Answer choice (B): This answer can be immediately eliminated, since the statement referenced in the question stem does not support any other statement. The generalization made in the first sentence plays no structural role in the argument.
Answer choice (C): This answer can be immediately eliminated, since the statement referenced in the question stem does not serve as evidence for any other statement.
Answer choice (D): This answer choice can be immediately eliminated, because the author makes no attempt to illustrate the generalization made in the first sentence.
Answer choice (E): This is the Reverse answer. While the second sentence is certainly an observation of a phenomenon, this observation is not explained by the conclusion, but by a premise (last sentence). Conclusions do not explain, or support, other claims; rather, they are explained—or supported—by those claims. (That’s why we call them “conclusions”).
Method—AP. The correct answer choice is (A).
The author begins by observing that people would be better off if they “refrained from being impolite” (notice the double negative). The second sentence changes direction (“but”) and makes a counterpoint: passing laws that force everyone to be polite is not a good idea. Why not? Well, according to the last sentence, enforcing such laws would create even more problems than does impoliteness. Because the last sentence supports the sentence that precedes it, the last sentence functions as the premise for the argument’s conclusion:
Premise—Enforcing laws that require people to be polite would create more problems than does impoliteness.Because the argument structure in Method—AP questions tends to be more complex than usual, it is critical to identify each argument part correctly and understand how they relate to each other before attacking the answer choices. Based on the analysis above, the claim whose function we are asked to describe is a conclusion. This prephrase alone is sufficient to eliminate every single answer choice except for (A), which is the correct answer choice.
Conclusion—:Society would not be better off if the government enacted laws requiring people to be impolite.
Note the absence of any premise or conclusion indicators here—your job is to determine which claim plays a supportive role, and which claim is the one being supported, without relying on keywords to point you in the right direction. We should also point out that, given the nature of your task, diagramming the conditional relationships in the stimulus would be a waste of time. Focus on the argument from a structural point of view only.
Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. The statement referenced in the question stem is a conclusion, because the cost/benefit analysis outlined in the last sentence serves to explain why passing law that force everyone to be polite is not a good idea.
Answer choice (B): This answer can be immediately eliminated, since the statement referenced in the question stem does not support any other statement. The generalization made in the first sentence plays no structural role in the argument.
Answer choice (C): This answer can be immediately eliminated, since the statement referenced in the question stem does not serve as evidence for any other statement.
Answer choice (D): This answer choice can be immediately eliminated, because the author makes no attempt to illustrate the generalization made in the first sentence.
Answer choice (E): This is the Reverse answer. While the second sentence is certainly an observation of a phenomenon, this observation is not explained by the conclusion, but by a premise (last sentence). Conclusions do not explain, or support, other claims; rather, they are explained—or supported—by those claims. (That’s why we call them “conclusions”).