LSAT 159 | Section 1 | Logical Reasoning: Q7

LR Question 7 Explanation

QUESTION TEXT: Critic: It generally holds true of concert pianists that …

QUESTION TYPE: Strengthen

CONCLUSION: It is in fact true that more famous concert pianists give audiences more pleasure.

REASONING: No reasoning is given to support this view.

ANALYSIS: To support the critic, we need to show that fame actually reflects musical ability. If that connection holds, then it makes sense that audiences enjoy famous pianists more, because those pianists are genuinely better.

___________

1. CORRECT. If fame usually reflects talent, then enjoying famous pianists more is fair and shows audiences are responding to real quality.
    
   It is reasonable to believe that talented musicians produce a more pleasing musical performance: this is part of the definition of what talented means in the context of being a musician.
2. This weakens the argument by weakening the link between fame and talent.
3. This may be true, but it doesn’t tell us why famous artists draw a large crowd. Are people coming because famous artists produce pleasing music, or merely because the famous artist is well known?
    
   We need to show that fame = talent.
4. This shows that even the best concert pianists are not perfect. This makes sense, no one is absolutely perfect. But this tells us nothing about whether famous artists are in general better at music.
    
   Note that this answer doesn’t talk about famous pianists. It talks about the finest pianists.
5. If it’s difficult for the audience to appreciate the best pianists, then they wouldn’t be able to distinguish good from bad. That goes against the argument. The author had assumed a link between an artist being good and their music being pleasing.