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- Wed May 24, 2017 1:04 pm
#35329
Complete Question Explanation
Strengthen—PR. The correct answer choice is (A)
This author describes an interesting party game in which one person exits the room, leaving the
group for a short time while another guest is supposedly telling everyone else about a recent dream.
When the first person comes back into the room, he or she is supposed to use yes-or-no questions in
an effort to reconstruct the details of the dream that had been relayed to the rest of the group. Despite
the fact that in reality, no dream has been discussed during the player’s absence from the room, the
person who has left usually manages to create a brilliant and coherent story.
The question that follows asks for the principle that has been exemplified in the stimulus. The correct
answer should somehow explain how the narrative that is actually unwittingly created from scratch is
usually a good one.
The expectation that the story actually exists to begin with seems to create something of a selffulfilling
prophecy—if the player who has left the room expects to put together the pieces of an
interesting story, then that is what he or she will create.
Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. The party game discussed in the stimulus
conforms perfectly to the proposition presented here: when a person assumes that a story is going to
make sense, one can inject coherence and order into the story (turning the presumption into a selffulfilling
prophecy).
Answer choice (B): This choice provides a proposition that does not apply at all to the stimulus; in
the stimulus there is no misunderstanding of what anyone says—the person who has supposedly
relayed the details of a recent dream hasn’t actually relayed anything to the crowd, and the player
who has left the room would not have heard anything to misunderstand. This choice deals with the
relative likelihood of misunderstanding a story versus not being able to make any sense of it. Since
this proposition has no relevance to the scenario discussed in the stimulus, it can safely be ruled out
of contention.
Answer choice (C): This choice basically says that dreams often lack clear structure; that they are
often simply collections of ideas and images—this is not a proposition reflected in the stimulus, in
which no real dream is actually discussed, and a dream that never really took place is unwittingly
given coherent structure.
Answer choice (D): This choice concerns a requirement of dream interpretation. The party game
discussed has nothing to do with dream interpretation, or of understanding another person’s dream;
the party game discussed deals with simply trying to reconstruct the events of a dream (that did not
actually take place) so this is not the proposition reflected in the stimulus.
Answer choice (E): This choice does deal with clever and coherent stories, but that is where this
principle’s applicability ends. This answer discusses the use of clever and coherent stories by people
who are attempting to explain their own behavior to other people. As explained by the author, the
party game discussed in the stimulus deals with the unwitting creation of a coherent narrative, but
has nothing to do with trying to explain one’s behavior to others, so this cannot be the right answer
choice.
Strengthen—PR. The correct answer choice is (A)
This author describes an interesting party game in which one person exits the room, leaving the
group for a short time while another guest is supposedly telling everyone else about a recent dream.
When the first person comes back into the room, he or she is supposed to use yes-or-no questions in
an effort to reconstruct the details of the dream that had been relayed to the rest of the group. Despite
the fact that in reality, no dream has been discussed during the player’s absence from the room, the
person who has left usually manages to create a brilliant and coherent story.
The question that follows asks for the principle that has been exemplified in the stimulus. The correct
answer should somehow explain how the narrative that is actually unwittingly created from scratch is
usually a good one.
The expectation that the story actually exists to begin with seems to create something of a selffulfilling
prophecy—if the player who has left the room expects to put together the pieces of an
interesting story, then that is what he or she will create.
Answer choice (A): This is the correct answer choice. The party game discussed in the stimulus
conforms perfectly to the proposition presented here: when a person assumes that a story is going to
make sense, one can inject coherence and order into the story (turning the presumption into a selffulfilling
prophecy).
Answer choice (B): This choice provides a proposition that does not apply at all to the stimulus; in
the stimulus there is no misunderstanding of what anyone says—the person who has supposedly
relayed the details of a recent dream hasn’t actually relayed anything to the crowd, and the player
who has left the room would not have heard anything to misunderstand. This choice deals with the
relative likelihood of misunderstanding a story versus not being able to make any sense of it. Since
this proposition has no relevance to the scenario discussed in the stimulus, it can safely be ruled out
of contention.
Answer choice (C): This choice basically says that dreams often lack clear structure; that they are
often simply collections of ideas and images—this is not a proposition reflected in the stimulus, in
which no real dream is actually discussed, and a dream that never really took place is unwittingly
given coherent structure.
Answer choice (D): This choice concerns a requirement of dream interpretation. The party game
discussed has nothing to do with dream interpretation, or of understanding another person’s dream;
the party game discussed deals with simply trying to reconstruct the events of a dream (that did not
actually take place) so this is not the proposition reflected in the stimulus.
Answer choice (E): This choice does deal with clever and coherent stories, but that is where this
principle’s applicability ends. This answer discusses the use of clever and coherent stories by people
who are attempting to explain their own behavior to other people. As explained by the author, the
party game discussed in the stimulus deals with the unwitting creation of a coherent narrative, but
has nothing to do with trying to explain one’s behavior to others, so this cannot be the right answer
choice.
