Bunuel
Competition Mode Question
Several critics have claimed that any contemporary poet who writes formal poetry—poetry that is rhymed and metered—is performing a politically conservative act. This is plainly false. Consider Molly Peacock and Marilyn Hacker, two contemporary poets whose poetry is almost exclusively formal and yet who are themselves politically progressive feminists.
The conclusion drawn above follows logically if which one of the following is assumed?
(A) No one who is a feminist is also politically conservative.
(B) No poet who writes unrhymed or unmetered poetry is politically conservative.
(C) No one who is politically progressive is capable of performing a politically conservative act.
(D) Anyone who sometimes writes poetry that is not politically conservative never writes poetry that is politically conservative.
(E) The content of a poet’s work, not the work’s form, is the most decisive factor in determining what political consequences, if any, the work will have.
Train yourself to read the argument critically i.e. identify gaps while you read.
Several critics have claimed that any contemporary poet who writes formal poetry—poetry that is rhymed and metered—is performing a politically conservative act. Critical say that formal poetry writing is a politically conservative act.
This is plainly false.Conclusion: Critics are wrong.
Consider Molly Peacock and Marilyn Hacker, two contemporary poets whose poetry is almost exclusively formal and yet who are themselves politically progressive feminists.These two poets write formal poetry but are politically progressive feminists.
I see the gap. The premise says that the poets are progressive. But format poetry writing is a conservative act. So until and unless I can say that anyone who is a progressive cannot commit a conservative act, this needn't be false.
We need the conclusion to be logically followed. So we should be given that anyone who is progressive cannot commit a conservative act.
(A) No one who is a feminist is also politically conservative.
Irrelevant. We need to link the kind of person with the kind of act.
(B) No poet who writes unrhymed or unmetered poetry is politically conservative.
Irrelevant. We don't know anything about poets who write non formal poetry.
(C) No one who is politically progressive is capable of performing a politically conservative act.
Correct.
(D) Anyone who sometimes writes poetry that is not politically conservative never writes poetry that is politically conservative.
We don't know anything about poets who write non conservative poetry.
(E) The content of a poet’s work, not the work’s form, is the most decisive factor in determining what political consequences, if any, the work will have.
Irrelevant. Doesn't link act to the person.
Answer (C)
for prompt response. Well , i am trying to read the argument critically and inculcate this habit of pre-thinking. But i seldom able to fill the gap with correct assumption without looking at the answer. I solved LSAT 700 level questions just on assumptions, however the accuracy was only 50%. At that point , i was not using any pre-thinking. I just read the passage and try to answer the question by looking at the answer choices. But it seemed that i was taking too much time on average like 2 min 30 secs . Thats when i thought of resorting to pre-thinking.
Any suggestions on how to progress on pre-thinking would be appreciated.