Logical ReasoningDifficulty: Hard

PT154 S1 Q14 Explanation

Although early jazz music

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Stimulus

Although early jazz music featured a great deal of improvisation, this improvisation did not stray too far from the rather simple, catchy melodies upon which it was based. So, however interesting it may be, later music featuring ought not to be classified as jazz.

What this question is testing

Weaken

Your task

Find the choice that makes the argument's conclusion less likely to be true.

Common trap

Answers that look negative but attack a claim the argument never relied on.

Winning move

Find the assumption the argument depends on, then pick the choice that undermines it.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
14.

Which one of the following, if true, most weakens

Answer choices

  1. No Impact13% picked this

    For a piece of music to be classified as jazz, it must feature some

    The author would be fine with this rule. She thinks that early "true" jazz had improv. This would only weaken if it said, "for music to be jazz, it must feature some improvisation that strays far from the melody."

  2. No Impact18% picked this

    The later music featuring improvisation was heavily influenced by

    Something can be heavily influenced by early jazz without being jazz itself. Nirvana was heavily influenced by the music of the Beatles, but that doesn't mean we'd say that Nirvana is 60s style Brit-Pop.

  3. No Impact3% picked this

    Some of the later music featuring improvisation was performed by artists who had been jazz musicians

    Words like "some / can / may / might / not all" are almost always wrong on Strengthen / Weaken / Paradox, since they only convey at least one data point. Similar to (B), saying that the musicians involved in this later music were jazz musicians early in their careers doesn't help us classify the current music. Mariah Carey was a gospel musician early in her career, but that doesn't mean her top-selling records get classified as "gospel" music.

  4. Strengthens2% picked this

    Many types of music other than jazz feature a great deal

    This could help the author argue that we shouldn't call this heavy-improv music "jazz". She could be like, "This is more like Phish / Grateful Dead jamband stuff than jazz".

  5. Correct63% picked this

    The later music featuring improvisation has much more in common with early jazz than with any

    Why this is right

    Of all the available answers, this helps us the most to argue that this later, improv-heavy music should be classified as "jazz". Even if the improv style has evolved from staying true to the melody to getting more out there, this style still has more in common with early jazz than with any other type of music. Thus, we either create a brand new genre to classify this music, or we lump it in with its closest cousin, "Jazz".

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

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