Judicial punishment's power to deter people from committing crimes is a function of the severity of the penalty and t...

Naz on September 9, 2015

We are told that something (judicial punishment's power to deter people from committing crimes) depends on two things (severity of the penalty and the likelihood of one's actually receiving the penalty.) But, sometimes, one of those things can cause the other to lessen (occasionally juries decide that a crime's penalty is too severe and refuse to convict a person they are convinced has committed the crime). Therefore, one of the things being too extreme (he crime's penalty being too severe) could actually cause the original point to be decreased (may decrease the deterrent power of judicial punishment).

Answer choice (A) follows the same reasoning.

We know that something (success in attaining one's first academic jobs) depends on two things ( the quality of one's dissertation and the amount of time spent working on it in graduate school). But, sometimes one of those things can cause the other to lessen (sometimes, so much time is spent on a dissertation that it becomes too lengthy to be coherent and its quality suffers). Therefore, one of the things being too extreme (spending more time working on a dissertation) could actually cause the original point to be decreased (can lead to less success in attaining a first academic job).

Hope that clears things up! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Julie-V on August 6, 2019

thank you for the detailed explanation as to why (A) is correct. Looking back at my thought process, I don't even know why I thought choice (D) would be correct. Would this answer choice be incorrect because it doesn't show one thing being an extreme but rather says that focusing on one would be more beneficial? thanks in advance!

Ravi on August 6, 2019

@Julie-V,

Great question. The problem with (D) is that the original argument in
the stimulus does not make any statements regarding what people should
or should not do, so this is why it doesn't match well and is
incorrect.

Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any other questions!