Music critic: How well an underground

Answer choices

1. A

   Bad Evidence Match9% picked this

   If an underground rock group is successful as an underground group, its recordings will sell neither especially

   This principle says successful underground groups have moderate sales — not high, not low. That actually claims sales are informative about success, which contradicts the conclusion. The argument says sales tell us nothing; this principle says sales tell us a lot. Wrong direction.

   9%
2. B

   Correct48% picked this

   An underground rock group is unsuccessful as an underground group if it is incompetent or if any of its music is too trendy

   Why this is right

   This is the principle that bridges the argument. It says a group is unsuccessful if it is incompetent OR if any of its music is too trendy (or both). That covers both of the critic's scenarios: weak sales due to incompetence → unsuccessful (so weak sales don't prove success); strong sales due to trendy music → unsuccessful (so strong sales don't prove success either). With this rule in place, sales numbers really don't mark success — exactly what the conclusion claims.

   Skill tested: Principle-Strengthen · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.

   48%
3. C

   Bad Evidence Match18% picked this

   Whether an underground group's recordings meet criteria that many underground musicians consider desirable is not a mark

   This says criteria many underground musicians find desirable are not marks of success. That's about desirability as a criterion, not about sales, and not about competence or trendy music. It doesn't link strong sales or weak sales to a non-success label, so it doesn't bridge to the conclusion that sales aren't a mark of success.

   18%
4. D

   Bad Evidence Match17% picked this

   An underground rock group is successful as an underground group if the group is competent but its recordings

   This principle says competent groups whose recordings don't sell well are successful. That makes weak sales (combined with competence) a positive marker of success — the opposite of what the conclusion claims. The conclusion says sales are not a mark of success at all, but this principle treats weak sales as part of the recipe for success.

   17%
5. E

   Bad Evidence Match9% picked this

   For an underground rock group, competence and the creation of authentically underground music are not in

   This says competence and authentic underground music are not, by themselves, marks of success. That's the wrong half of the argument — the argument needs to disqualify groups that are incompetent or that make trendy music. Saying "competence isn't enough" doesn't establish "incompetence makes you unsuccessful," which is what we need to handle the weak-sales case.

   9%