Section C – Verbal Ability and Logical Reasoning

71. Social roles may either conflict or cooperate within any given person, depending upon the circumstance. They conflict when the behaviour patterns demanded by one role cannot be performed while performing the second role. Thus one cannot easily be a saintly rake or a feminine brute, but given an understanding husband, a woman can be both a loving wife and a loving mother with no conflict between the roles.

Which of the following methods is used by the author to make his or her point?

A. Applying an individual attribute to a whole

B. Implying contradictions without actually citing them

C. Relying on common-sense notions of social roles

D. Presenting specific examples to clarify a generality

E. Using paradox to highlight an implicit contradiction

Solution:

The passage is about conflicting and cooperative social roles. The author states his observation and goes on to clarify by giving specific examples like ‘saintly rake’ or ‘feminine brute’ for conflicting roles and ‘loving wife’ and loving mother’ for cooperative roles. Hence, the answer is D. A is wrong as there’s no ‘individual attribute’ or a ‘whole’. B is wrong as there’s no implication. C is partial as it applies only to the later part of the passage. E is wrong as it is partial too and applies only to ‘saintly rake’ and ‘feminine brute’.

Choice (D)