#14 - People's political behavior frequently does not match

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Caroline!

It's always good to look at the relationship between the different parts of the argument rather than just relying on conclusion indicator terms when determining the main conclusion--especially in a Method of Reasoning-Argument Part question like this! This stimulus is a bit tricky but I think that you could look at the first sentence as the broader generalization that the rest of the stimulus is designed to support.

But even if you don't think of the last sentence as the MAIN conclusion, the "thus" indicator still means that it is A conclusion. Arguments can have more than one conclusion, as they often have sub-conclusions/intermediate conclusions in addition to the main conclusion. Answer choice (B) doesn't say that the last sentence is the main conclusion of the argument. It's just the conclusion that the sentence specified in the question stem supports. And, regardless of whether or not the last sentence is the main conclusion, the second sentence does support the last sentence. Also, answer choice (B) describes the role that the claim plays in the argument much better than any of the other answer choices.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[BMM2021]

Hi,

I had the same concern as Caroline and was stuck between A and B - so I chose A. I recognized that the claim in question was supporting the final sentence, I just wasn't confident that the final sentence was THE conclusion of the stimulus. It appeared more like a sub-conclusion that gets us to the final generalization that "people's political behavior frequently does not match their rhetoric." Moreover, I recognized the weaknesses with A - that the sentence is not really a description; that the conclusion doesn't so much explain the behavior as it simply generalizes about it, etc. I just thought the "conclusion" portion of answer B was intended as a means to throw one off.

Regardless, I appreciate Kelsey's response. I'm wondering if this is a rule that can be applied to MOR answer choices moving forward: that reference to a "conclusion" does not necessarily imply the stimulus' overall conclusion?

[katehos]

Hi BMM2021!

Like Kelsey mentioned, answer choice (B) doesn't specify THE conclusion of the stimulus, rather, it says "the conclusion THAT voters often reelect politicians whose behavior they resent." So, the last sentence about voters reelecting politicians they resent doesn't need to be the main conclusion of the argument (even if it is), all the claim in question needs to do is be a premise to support that specific conclusion mentioned in (B)!

To your second question, references to "conclusion(s)" do not necessarily imply the stimulus' overall conclusion. It's about context! Sometimes answers will specify the "main" conclusion, or the "only" conclusion, or even an "intermediate" conclusion! In this case, the conclusion in question is specifically given to you as "the conclusion THAT...". When you see this, you know it's referring to only that specific conclusion, which might or might not be the overall conclusion of the argument.

I hope this helps
Kate