#21 - Helen: It was wrong of my brother Mark to tell our mother that the reason he had missed her

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Main Point. The correct answer choice is (D).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (E):

[gabe_katz)=_]

Hi,

I would love an explanation of why the answer is D and not E. I can see why A, B, and C are not the main point of the argument. That seems obvious to me.

My thought is that E says "always," which is too strong of a phrase for this argument. Am I on the right track?

Thanks for your help,
Gabe

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Gabe,

When we try to figure out the main point of an argument, we are looking for the part of the argument that is supported by the premises, but does not itself support any other part of the argument. When we are deciding between two answer choices, like it sounds like you were doing here, we can use a little test to see really pin down which statement is supported and which statement is supporting. The crux of the test is to try and think of the answer choices as two clauses in a "since... therefore" sort of relationship and see which direction in makes more sense.

Option 1: Since it was wrong of Mark to tell his mother he had been in an accident, therefore it's always wrong not to tell the truth

Option 2: Since it's always wrong not to tell the truth, therefore it was wrong of Mark to tell his mother he had been in an accident.

Which option makes more sense here? Hopefully it's option 2 for you as well. Option 1 doesn't really support the idea that it's always wrong not to tell the truth. However, if it's always wrong not to tell the truth, then we can conclude Mark was wrong as he did not tell the truth.

Hope that helps!

[Esquire123]

I was stuck between D and C. Is C wrong because it is a premise in the stimulus? It started sounding like sentence two in the stimulus, but not sure if that's the correct reasoning for eliminating it.

[Luke Haqq]

Hi Esquire123!

Yes, your reasoning sounds right. This is a main point question, which asks one to determine the conclusion that the stimulus is driving at; if you've identified something as a premise rather than the conclusion, that should pull that answer choice out of contention.

There are other specifics in this particular question that make answer choice (D) superior to (C). One in particular is that answer choice (C) is stated in general terms--it's a claim about what is wrong in general. Here, though, the stimulus is specifically an argument that Helen is making about her brother Mark.

In addition, even if (C) had been more specific, the principle it conveys is a bit off. Answer choice (C) states, "it is wrong to attempt to avoid blame for one’s failure to do something by claiming that one was prevented from doing that thing by events outside one’s control." The stimulus is about someone stating something false as an excuse. Answer choice (C) doesn't capture this. If an accident had actually prevented Mark from attending the party (or something else outside of his control, such as a tornado en route), there isn't anything in the stimulus that would suggest that Helen would consider this wrong.

By contrast, answer choice (D) is more grounded in the specifics of what she argues, and it also captures that this was wrong because of the specific reasons that Mark gave. Answer choice (D) states, "it was wrong of Mark to tell his mother that he had missed her birthday party as a result of having been in a traffic accident." She unpacks that this was wrong because "there had been no such accident."

Finally, it's worth noting that the placement of the conclusion could be a reason that this one might be a bit tricky. Usually, the conclusion comes at the end of a stimulus. Here, though, it's at the start. If you encounter a question asking you to identify the main conclusion as here, it's worth being on guard--e.g., the conclusion might not be at the end, there might be a subsidiary conclusion and a main conclusion, or the answer choice might use different words while still conveying the same thing as the conclusion.