PT150 S3 Q4 ExplanationThe reason J. S. Bach is remembered

Answer choices, explained

1. A

   Correct81% picked this

   Several of Bach's contemporaries who produced more works than he did have

   Why this is right

   This attacks the plausibility of the author's causal story in a Cause w/o Effect style. For these other composers, they produced more than a thousand compositions as well, and yet they are largely forgotten. (They had the same Supposed Cause -- lots of compositions, but didn't experience the Supposed Effect -- being famous for centuries). Specifically, this answer basically destroys the intermediate conclusion, which was saying that if you have 1000+ compositions, "then it's inevitable that some of them would be outstanding and survive the ages". It's clearly not inevitable, since other people who wrote 1000+ songs did not have outstanding songs that survived the ages.

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

   81%
2. B

   No Impact4% picked this

   There are a few highly regarded composers who wrote a comparatively small

   This answer doesn't seem to impact anything regarding the Bach situation. He obviously did not write a small number of compositions, but that doesn't hurt the author's argument. She wasn't saying that all famous composers wrote tons of compositions. In fact she's allowing for the idea that some famous composers might have had a high ratio of outstanding to mediocre compositions (like this answer describes), just not Bach.

   4%
3. C

   Strengthens, if anything8% picked this

   Bach wrote many compositions that were considered mediocre in his lifetime, and a large proportion of these

   This fits the story the author is telling. Bach was not some crazy lucky composer who wrote hit after hit. It was more like he just stayed busy, wrote 1000 songs, and so at least a handful of them are absolute gems (while the other 900 will be forgotten, mediocre compositions).

   8%
4. D

   No Impact3% picked this

   The exact number of Bach's compositions is not known, since many of them have been

   Given that we know that Bach wrote more than a thousand songs, the exact number isn't going to matter to us. The fact that the exact number isn't known makes no difference.

   3%
5. E

   No Impact3% picked this

   Some great creative geniuses are remembered because they had a very high ratio of outstanding

   The author's remarks indicate that she's aware that some people are potentially famous because of a high ratio of great to mediocre, just not Bach.

   3%