PrepTest 73, Passage 3, Setup
Transcript
Passage three is the social sciences passage on the test. And we soon find out that it is about a critic named Marcuse and his criticisms of advertising. They don't immediately use his name, they just mentioned that there are some critics out there who think that ads are manipulative and bad. And then they name check Marcuse and after that they give a further explanation of the things that Marcuse thinks.
He thinks that ads are bad because they create false needs in us they don't allow us to be satisfied even though we think we're satisfied. The second paragraph continues with the details about Marcuse's theory. It's not important to have all of the details in your note because you need to look up things about the theory, you can always go back to the beginning of the second paragraph, it's not going anywhere.
If there's anything to talk about, it's the fact that most of the paragraph is spent on the difference between true and false needs and how the false needs arise. In the third paragraph, the author takes a stand against Marcuse and comes out and says that he is wrong. And then goes on to attack him using a disjunction by saying, if Marcuse is right, people wouldn't be able to separate their true and false needs.
And the second part of that disjunction comes at beginning in the 4th paragraph where the author says that ultimately we can separate our true and false needs so Marcuse is wrong. He then goes on to talk about some ways in which advertising is good, though he does allow that it is bad in some ways. Always pay attention when the author admits something that is slightly opposite to their overall thrust.
So overall, this author is defending advertisement against Marcuse or at least showing that Marcuse isn't right about ads. But he does say a little bit to say that ads aren't always good. But in the end, this is a passage that more or less attacks the critics attacks on ads. So, let's go see what questions we have to deal with.
Read full transcriptHe thinks that ads are bad because they create false needs in us they don't allow us to be satisfied even though we think we're satisfied. The second paragraph continues with the details about Marcuse's theory. It's not important to have all of the details in your note because you need to look up things about the theory, you can always go back to the beginning of the second paragraph, it's not going anywhere.
If there's anything to talk about, it's the fact that most of the paragraph is spent on the difference between true and false needs and how the false needs arise. In the third paragraph, the author takes a stand against Marcuse and comes out and says that he is wrong. And then goes on to attack him using a disjunction by saying, if Marcuse is right, people wouldn't be able to separate their true and false needs.
And the second part of that disjunction comes at beginning in the 4th paragraph where the author says that ultimately we can separate our true and false needs so Marcuse is wrong. He then goes on to talk about some ways in which advertising is good, though he does allow that it is bad in some ways. Always pay attention when the author admits something that is slightly opposite to their overall thrust.
So overall, this author is defending advertisement against Marcuse or at least showing that Marcuse isn't right about ads. But he does say a little bit to say that ads aren't always good. But in the end, this is a passage that more or less attacks the critics attacks on ads. So, let's go see what questions we have to deal with.
