Nightbird is an unsigned painting

Answer choices

1. A

   Weaker Impact8% picked this

   Few of Larocque's students ever used painting techniques that differed

   This option suggests that few of Laroque's students used techniques different from Laroque’s. It does somewhat undermine the author's hypothesis, because if L's students rarely strayed from his techniques, then it sounds a little less likely that they would use a painting pigment he never used. But techniques ≠ pigment, so it's not that relevant, and it doesn't directly address orpiment, as the correct answer does.

   8%
2. B

   No Impact5% picked this

   Larocque never signed any of his

   This notes that Laroque never signed any of his paintings, but it doesn't specifically address the issue of orpiment or why the painting couldn't still be by Laroque, thus having no direct impact on the conclusion.

   5%
3. C

   Correct83% picked this

   No painting currently recognized as the work of one of Larocque's

   Why this is right

   This states that no painting recognized as one of Laroque's students contains orpiment, effectively challenging the basis for the conclusion. If students didn't use orpiment either, then the presence of orpiment doesn't clearly distinguish between Laroque and his students. The author is trying to use orpiment as a reason to think "one of L's students" is more likely as a hypothesis than "Laroque", but this answer makes it sound like orpiment applies equally to both of them, so the author no longer has any reason to favor one of L's students over Laroque.

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

   83%
4. D

   No Impact1% picked this

   None of Larocque's students is considered to be an

   This discusses the perceived importance of students, which is irrelevant to the argument about the painting's authorship based on pigment usage.

   1%
5. E

   Strengthens3% picked this

   The use of orpiment became more popular in the years after

   This suggests that the use of orpiment became popular after Laroque's time, which seems to undermine the idea that Laroque painted the painting and to support the idea that the students, working later, could have used it, thus somewhat bolstering the argument's conclusion.

   3%