LR Question 23 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Art historian: This painting, purportedly by Mary…
QUESTION TYPE: Necessary Assumption
CONCLUSION: The painting is not a genuine Cassett. It is a forgery.
REASONING: Many elements are similar to Cassett paintings. But the brush style is different from any work known to be Cassett’s.
ANALYSIS: We’re not told whether any other Cassett paintings have unique elements. If other Cassett paintings have unique elements then it’s not clear why a unique brush style implies forgery.
___________
- Who cares? It’s only important that it’s possible for a forger to use those materials. It doesn’t have to be easy.
- CORRECT. If other Cassett paintings have unique brush styles, then why does it matter that this painting has a unique brush style?
- It doesn’t matter whether subject matter is unique to Cassett, as long as the subject matter is consistent with the subject matter used in Cassett’s paintings.
- It only matters that brush style is a characteristic feature. It doesn’t have to be the most characteristic feature.
- This could explain why the forger failed, but it doesn’t matter. It only matters whether the brush style is indeed different from Cassett’s.
I was tempted to chose B but ultimately changed by answer because of the word “known” I thought that maybe we should not chose this because what if she has unknown pieces that use that brush style. Would this be wrong because the stimulus says “not found in any works known to be Cassatt’s?” Also for D is the negation of “most” some? Thanks!
We wouldn’t be able to make the claim that “none of Cassatt’s works is painted using a brush style that is not exhibited in any of her known or unknown works” because the brush style of an unknown Cassatt is by definition unknown. We can only work with the Cassatt paintings we know.
Re: (D), this is another sense of “most” than the one that we’re used to in necessary assumption questions. When “most” refers to a quantity (the sense we’re used to), then we negate it to “not most”, which could mean “a few”, or a restricted sense of “some” (less than or equal to 50%).
The negation of “most characteristic” is not the most characteristic — so, “the least characteristic”.