PrepTest 120

Incorrect. Both speakers do relate quality of life to productivity, but they argue that productivity affects quality of life, not the other way around, as this answer states.

Incorrect. Thelma raises this when discussing the effects of the glut of middle-aged workers, but Claude doesn't talk about businesses failing, so this answer is out of scope of his statements.

Incorrect. Claude relates these two ideas, but Thelma doesn't, so this answer is out of scope of her statements.

Incorrect. Both speakers discuss a glut of middle-aged workers as being an actual phenomenon, so this answer can feel like a point of agreement. However, neither talks about this number increasing in the coming years, so it's out of scope.

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument/Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed/Flawed

Question Type:
Point of Agreement

Stimulus Summary:
C: High numbers of middle-aged workers will reduce promotion opportunities, decreasing incentive to work hard, and decreasing productivity and quality of life.

T: Nah, those middle-aged workers will drive people to start their own companies, increasing hard work and productivity, improving quality of life.

Answer Anticipation:
Be careful—this is a Point of Agreement question. They're much rarer than Point at Issue questions, so it can be easy to misdiagnose the question.

Both Claude and Thelma start from the same point—there is a glut of middle-aged workers taking up management positions, preventing others from getting promoted. What effects this has are points over which they disagree, but they both agree on the phenomenon and that it will have some effects.

As such, we should look for an answer about the phenomenon itself (the glut of middle-aged workers).

Answer Explanation:
Claude believes that the high number of middle-aged workers will cause people to work less hard, lowering productivity. Thelma believes it'll cause people to start their own companies, increasing productivity. While the two disagree over the direction of the change to productivity, they both agree that there will be a change, so this is the correct answer.

Key Takeaway:
First, be careful that you don't treat a Point of Agreement question as a Point at Issue question! The former are relatively rare, so it's easy to miss it when you're asked this question instead of the latter.

Second, a lot of Point of Agreement questions end up playing around with differences. As we can see here, the two speakers believe that a certain phenomenon will have opposite effects. However, they both believe that it will have some effect, and that is what ends up showing up in the correct answer.