MCAT Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills Question 3: Answer and Explanation
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Question: 3
3. By stating that "the analogy is imperfect" in the fourth paragraph, the author most likely intends to suggest that:
- A. people in a society should be regarded as more than just parts making up a whole.
- B. human societies are far more complex than the cells that constitute a single human body.
- C. comparisons between any two ideas can only ever be imprecise.
- D. transgressors are not treated identically under utopian and dystopian social orders.
Correct Answer: A
Explanation:
Return to the line in context: "Such free spirits cannot be tolerated within the body politic any more than a cancerous cell within the body physical. The analogy is imperfect, of course, since a tumor does not feel." The suggestion is that humans are different than cells, that they deserve to be considered as more than just expendable parts of a larger whole, because they (unlike tumors and other cells) can feel. Choice (A) matches most closely with this reasoning.
(B) In the analogy, cells (parts of the larger whole that is the body) are being likened to people (parts of the larger whole that is society). This choice mischaracterizes the analogy because it compares the whole on one side (society) to the parts on the other (cells).
(C) Distortion. The author is not suggesting that every analogy is imperfect, only that the particular analogy being discussed is.
(D) While this might pose a different kind of problem for the analogy, it does not make sense in context. The author cites "a tumor does not feel" as a reason for the breakdown, which has nothing to do with the differences between utopia and dystopia.