Question 75
HardOriginal questionThe Cat only when it saw Alice. It looked , she thought: still it had very long claws and a great many teeth, so she felt that it ought to be treated with respect.
“Cheshire Puss,” she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. “Come, it’s pleased so far,” thought Alice, and she went on. “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.
“I don’t much care where—” said Alice.
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat.
“—so long as I get somewhere,” Alice added as an explanation.
“Oh, you’re sure to do that,” said the Cat, “if you only walk long enough.”
Alice felt that this could not be , so she tried another question. “What sort of people live about here?”
“In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter: and in that direction,” waving the other paw, “lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad.”
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice .
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
Is the Cat's argument "or you wouldn't have come here" a real proof that Alice is mad?
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
The Cat says Alice must be mad because she came to a place where "we're all mad". That only works if you already accept that everyone there is mad.
The narrator adds that Alice "didn't think that proved it at all".
Worth noting
Alice does not agree; she thinks it proves nothing.
- Concept
- Evaluating an argument in a text
- Typical timeTypical
- 55 s
- Your timeYours
- —
Ten questions from Literary passages, at your own pace.