Q11 - It is even more important

[sumukh09]

This is a must be true question so the correct answer choice should be something we can infer based on the information provided in the stimulus. For these question types our goal is to use the statements in the stimulus and see how they interact with another in order to be able to make a feasible inference. For example, if I say I like movies that have a lot of action in them and then later make the assertion that a new movie that is about to come out is critically acclaimed as the most action packed movie in decades then you could be able to reasonably infer that I will like this new movie that is about to come out. You can infer this simply by combining the elements of my first statement and second statement and see how the two logically connect.

In this question we are told in the first sentence that it is more important to criticize democracies that commit human rights violations than dictatorships. Why? Because it is even more reprehensible to commit human rights violations when you are supposed to represent the will of the people (a democracy) than when the government is a dictatorship. And lastly the argument says that criticism directed towards democracies would have more of an effect than if they were directed towards dictatorships.

Answer choices:

A) Incorrect - "All" should be an immediate red flag here and should always prompt your suspicion when you're dealing with a must be true question and 'All' shows up in one of the answer choices. The qualifier is usually too broad and strong to be justified using the stimulus and this is no exception.

B) This is the correct answer"”we can make this inference based on the information provided in the first and second sentence of the stimulus. The first sentence says that democracies should be criticized more than dictatorships that commit "more violent human rights offenses" and the second statement says democracies are more reprehensible than dictatorships. Combining the elements of both statements we can infer what B is saying.

C) we can't infer this; "certain" is much too strong and we don't know what effect, if at all, criticism would have on dictatorships

D) Also not supported; we don't know what the likelihood is in either scenario

E) is a little tricky and it may be tempting at first to give this answer choice some thought. But this actually says the opposite of what the stim says by saying that democracies would be less likely to be moved by criticism when the stimulus says they would be more likely. Also this answer choice makes the distinction between those that "merely claim to represent the will of the people" and those that do in fact represent the will of the people, but we know nothing about those who "merely claim" to do so.

[ohthatpatrick]

Fantastic explanation. You should teach this stuff.