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I'm reviewing PT 44 and I've been racking my brain to figure out why one answer is credited and the other is not.

In Section 4 (LR) # 18 (about the "rational pursuit of happiness"), I eliminated A, C, and E. However, I did not get why B could not be true, and why D could be. I couldn't find any kind of support for D, while B seemed wrong because it said "any" desires.

Thoughts, please? I want to get my LR down to as few wrong as possible; it's my worst section.

kinorkahol wrote:I'm reviewing PT 44 and I've been racking my brain to figure out why one answer is credited and the other is not.

In Section 4 (LR) # 18 (about the "rational pursuit of happiness"), I eliminated A, C, and E. However, I did not get why B could not be true, and why D could be. I couldn't find any kind of support for D, while B seemed wrong because it said "any" desires.

Thoughts, please? I want to get my LR down to as few wrong as possible; it's my worst section.

I think you just answered your own question.

The stimulus says "ordinary" desires. What about weird, strange, or whatever other than "ordinary" desires. We don't know if those kinds of desires leads to momentary happiness. Most importantly, the stimulus also says "compulsions" are a type of "desire" and the last sentence is clear that these don't always lead to happiness, so B contradicts the last sentence in the stimulus.

D could be true, there just isn't enough information in the stimulus to confirm it one way or the other, so its not the right answer here.

I suck at these Q's. I'll have to look back and see if I got this one right or not (probably not). Sorry if my explan sucks.

DrackedaryMaster wrote:

kinorkahol wrote:I'm reviewing PT 44 and I've been racking my brain to figure out why one answer is credited and the other is not.

In Section 4 (LR) # 18 (about the "rational pursuit of happiness"), I eliminated A, C, and E. However, I did not get why B could not be true, and why D could be. I couldn't find any kind of support for D, while B seemed wrong because it said "any" desires.

Thoughts, please? I want to get my LR down to as few wrong as possible; it's my worst section.

I think you just answered your own question.

The stimulus says "ordinary" desires. What about weird, strange, or whatever other than "ordinary" desires. We don't know if those kinds of desires leads to momentary happiness. Most importantly, the stimulus also says "compulsions" are a type of "desire" and the last sentence is clear that these don't always lead to happiness, so B contradicts the last sentence in the stimulus.

D could be true, there just isn't enough information in the stimulus to confirm it one way or the other, so its not the right answer here.

I suck at these Q's. I'll have to look back and see if I got this one right or not (probably not). Sorry if my explan sucks.

No, I thought your explanation was great! Thanks so much. I didn't even realize that I was on my way to answering the question...

"EXCEPT" questions can be tricky. I hope I'll study enough to not get tricked on test day.

I felt that this was a harder LR question and it took me about 3 minutes to figure out the answer. You have to focus on what the stimulus says and not what you think is rational. The only answer you can disprove from the stimulus is answer "B"

Here are my reasonings.
A) Tricky answer that looks good at first but the stimulus really does not prove that statement wrong.
B) Correct. The stimulus states that compulsions sometimes make us pursue goals that give no happiness.
C) Could be True. The stimulus talks about this the whole time.
D) Out of Scope. The stimulus doesn't talk about anything to do with that.
E) Could be true. Nothing is in the stimulus that proves otherwise

deminion wrote:I felt that this was a harder LR question and it took me about 3 minutes to figure out the answer. You have to focus on what the stimulus says and not what you think is rational. The only answer you can disprove from the stimulus is answer "B"

Here are my reasonings.
A) Tricky answer that looks good at first but the stimulus really does not prove that statement wrong.
B) Correct. The stimulus states that compulsions sometimes make us pursue goals that give no happiness.
C) Could be True. The stimulus talks about this the whole time.
D) Out of Scope. The stimulus doesn't talk about anything to do with that.
E) Could be true. Nothing is in the stimulus that proves otherwise

Great, thanks. I was only debating between B and D, and now that I've looked at it again and read your explanation, I get why B is credited and D is not. Thanks again!

With "could be true EXCEPT" questions immediately translate this to mean "must be false" or "cannot be true." So, the correct choice in this question MUST contradict something that is explicitly stated in the passage. Though this might appear very basic, I believe that not being able to immediately isolate the purpose in a question is what holds a lot of 165+ test-takers back in terms of efficiency. They'll approach a problem without a clear purpose in mind and then end up having to re-trace their steps, resulting in a lack of time.

Concerning B and D:

(B): The philosopher specifically says that "desires are sometimes compulsions" and "compulsions strongly drive a person...that offer no happiness..." Thus this directly contradicts the claim in B, which states that attaining the goal of ANY desire results in momentary happiness.

(D): Notice that the passage provides no support for what people want, so this statement doesn't contradict anything that is specifically stated in the passage.

cw2010 wrote:With "could be true EXCEPT" questions immediately translate this to mean "must be false" or "cannot be true." So, the correct choice in this question MUST contradict something that is explicitly stated in the passage...I believe that not being able to immediately isolate the purpose in a question is what holds a lot of 165+ test-takers back in terms of efficiency. They'll approach a problem without a clear purpose in mind and then end up having to re-trace their steps, resulting in a lack of time.

Thanks for your commentary and explanation. I think you're right.

As I started taking more exams, I did notice that I have to automatically translate "could be true EXCEPT" into "must be false." I will work to make this automatic.