Logical Reasoning

PT159 · S1 · Q7 Critic: It generally holds true of concert pianists

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Critic: It generally holds true of concert pianists that the more famous the musician, the greater the pleasure of his or her audience.

Conclusion

Audiences' greater pleasure at performances by more famous pianists is fair and gives no cause for cynicism about audiences' ability to distinguish good playing from bad.

Evidence

It generally holds that the more famous a concert pianist, the greater the pleasure of his or her audience.

Evaluate

There's a big language shift from the terms of the evidence to the terms of the conclusion.

The evidence is talking about how famous a pianist is and how must pleasure the audience feels.

The conclusion is talking about good the playing is.

We probably want an answer to patch up these missing links.

We could interpret this as Explain Curious Fact, where the author is trying to interpret why audiences get more pleasure from more famous musicians. In the author's mind, it's because the pianist is playing better.

But maybe the audience just loves seeing someone famous.

Goal

Look for an answer connecting "more famous, play better" or for an answer connecting "more pleasure, play better".

Or let's otherwise look for any answer that suggests that audiences can distinguish good playing from bad playing, or one that rules out the idea that the audience's pleasure comes from some other source besides the quality of playing (such as from the fame of the pianist).

7.

Which one of the following, if true, most strongly supports the critic's view?

  1. Correct

    The fame of concert pianists

    Why this is right

    This connects "more famous" from the evidence to "good playing" in the conclusion. The author uses the fact that people enjoy famous pianists more to argue that people can tell that the playing is good. For this argument to work, we need to know that the famous pianists are actually playing well.

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

    82% picked this

  2. Some of the finest concert

    Opposite

    This is doing the opposite of (A). It's disconnecting fame and good playing. Some of the "finest" are "unknown".

    4% picked this

  3. In general, the more famous

    No Impact

    The size of the audience is irrelevant to this argument. We know audiences, of whatever size, get more pleasure from famous pianists. And we're trying to assess whether that means that people are getting pleasure from observing "good playing". This answer doesn't help us assess that at all.

    8% picked this

  4. Even the finest concert pianists

    No Impact

    This is a very weak idea saying that all pianists have some bad nights. If anything, that would weaken the intended link between "famous pianist" and "good playing".

    2% picked this

  5. The very best concert pianists

    Opposite

    The author's intended argument was that people enjoy famous pianists because they enjoy hearing good playing. This storyline makes it seem like good playing, from "the very best pianists", isn't actually enjoyed by audiences ("it's hard for them to appreciate it").

    4% picked this

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