People who listen to certain recordings

Answer choices

1. A

   Out of Scope: louder1% picked this

   the spoken messages must be louder than the music on

   Why do they have to be louder? Wouldn't equal volume still work for the author? When two people are speaking to me at the same time, at equal volume, I can be influenced by either of their words.

   1%
2. B

   Too Strong: preserving all qualities21% picked this

   backwards messages can be added to a recording while still preserving all the musical qualities

   The author's position doesn't change if we negate this and say that adding the backwards message compromises a musical quality of the recorded performance somewhat.

   21%
3. C

   Out of Scope5% picked this

   the recordings on which such messages appear are chosen for this purpose either because they are especially popular or because

   Out of Scope: chosen for this purpose We have no information about why certain artists may choose to put backwards messages on certain recordings.

   5%
4. D

   Correct67% picked this

   if such messages must be comprehended to exert influence, then people must be able to comprehend

   Why this is right

   If you heard a message recorded backwards, do you think it would influence you? Probably not, right? We'd think, "It'll just sound like garbled nonsense. I won't have any idea what it's saying. It could be kill the mailman or bet on the Yankees, we'd never know. But somehow this author thinks that these backwards messages could influence us. This answer just spells out that confusing logic: if the messages need to be comprehended to influence us (and we're only going to ever hear them backwards on this recording), then that would mean that we can somehow comprehend these backwards messages?

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

   67%
5. E

   Out of Scope / Strong: full attention6% picked this

   when people listen to recorded music, they pay full attention to the music

   The author doesn't need to assume that we always pay full attention to music. The author even uses soft wording like, "We're in danger of being unduly influenced", not that we necessarily will. He might think that we don't need full attention (90% might be good enough) to be swayed by these hidden messages.

   6%