PrepTest 123, Section 3, Question 7
By Brandon Beaver | Published October 29, 2024
Type: Agree / Disagree
Difficulty:
Explanations
Okay, it’s better to look at this in reverse. Marla thinks that people living “moderately” don’t actually live moderately. To live moderately, she says, requires risking “going too far.” People who don’t aren’t living moderately.
Antonio says that living moderately causes one to lose “the joy of spontaneity” and miss “the opportunities that come to those who are occasionally willing to take great chances, or to go too far.”
Now, what is their disagreement? That people living moderately don’t take risks.
A
Desirability is never discussed.
B
Yeah, that’s not how I expected it to be phrased, but it means the same thing. Antonio thinks moderation requires never taking risks. Marla thinks moderation requires taking risks.
C
Other virtues are never discussed.
D
What a person “ought” to do is never discussed. Marla and Antonio aren’t advocating for a person to pursue a life of moderation. They are just discussing what a life of moderation entails.
E
Nope. Wrong for essentially the same reasons as A and D.
Passage
Antonio: One can live a life of moderation by never deviating from the middle course. But then one loses the joy of spontaneity and misses the opportunities that come to those who are occasionally willing to take great chances, or to go too far.
Marla: But one who, in the interests of moderation, never risks going too far is actually failing to live a life of moderation: one must be moderate even in one's moderation.
Question 7
Antonio and Marla disagree over
whether it is desirable for people occasionally to take great chances in life
what a life of moderation requires of a person
whether it is possible for a person to embrace other virtues along with moderation
how often a person ought to deviate from the middle course in life
whether it is desirable for people to be moderately spontaneous