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GMAT-Reading Comprehension
This Passages is relating to Social Science.
For the next two questions(5 & 6)also, this passage will be appear.
A false analogy underlies the philosophy of classical liberalizers. According to this analogy, as the individual is to the nation-state, so the nation-state is to the international community. Woodrow Wilson articulated this idea when he said that nations must be “governed in their conduct toward each other by the same principles that govern the individual citizens of all modern nations”. The analogy suggests that each nation has a unitary national will, expressed in the results of its elections. This leads to difficulties in the case of non-democratic nations, but it leads to even more pervasive misunderstandings of democratic nations, those which have apparently representative electoral systems. The acceptance of these two specious assumptions leads to the seeming inexplicability of reversals in diplomatic negotiations, with the leadership of one nation failing to recognize that no single issue is of vital importance to another nation, but only to certain factions within that nation.
[The difficult words in this passage are articulated (expressed), pervasive (widespread), specious (misleading), inexplicable (unexplainable) and factions (groups)]
4. The author quotes Woodrow Wilson (lines 3-5) primarily in order to
(A) Offer an example of the contradiction present in the analogy that compares the individual to the nation-state.
(B) Support the thesis that there is a disparity between the wants of the individual and the wants of the nation-state.
(C) Suggest that the comparison of the individual to the nation-state is part of a widely held political belief.
(D) Illustrate a new interpretation of the analogical relationship often assumed by those who believe in classical liberalism.
(E) Clarify the analogy that compares the behavior of individuals to the behavior of nation-states.
This is a ‘specific fact’ question, in which the key phrase is ‘Woodrow Wilson’. In the second sentence, the author mentions the analogy individual; nation state:: nation state : international community. Then he quotes Woodrow Wilson (who believed in this analogy) as having said, “nations must be governed in their conduct toward each other by the same principles that govern the individual citizens of all modern nations”. This is obviously an elucidation or clarification of the analogy mentioned by the author first. So, (E) is the answer.
(A) is wrong since no contradiction is mentioned by Wilson in the quotation.
The wants of an individual or of a nation not mentioned at all in the passage, and so, (B) is wrong.
The popularity of classical liberalism is not mentioned anywhere in the passage, and therefore, (C) is also wrong.
The analogical relationship mentioned first by the author can have only the interpretation as given by Wilson, and therefore Wilson’s cannot be considered as a ‘new’ interpretation. Thus, (D) is also wrong.
For the next two questions(5 & 6)also, this passage will be appear.
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