PrepTest 143

Correct. Argument or Facts:
Argument

Valid or Flawed:
Flawed

Question Type:
Strengthen with Sufficient Premise

Stimulus Summary:
Art criticism can make people like or dislike art more than they otherwise would have. So criticism plays a role in determining artistic merit.

Answer Anticipation:
Strengthen with Sufficient Premise questions will frequently include a new concept or term in the conclusion—one that sounds related to what was discussed in the premises but is distinct enough to represent an invalid shift. When dealing with this question type, you should generally start by seeing what in the conclusion hasn't been discussed in the premises.

Here, the conclusion talks about artistic merit, whereas the premises don't. Artistic merit is linked to criticism in the conclusion, whereas artistic merit is linked to affecting the amount of pleasure viewers get from art in the stimulus. So to get the premise to link to the conclusion, we need to link those elements that aren't yet linked—artistic merit is related to the pleasure that viewers get from looking at that art.

Answer Explanation:
According to the premise, critics can affect the amount of pleasure that someone gets from viewing art. If that pleasure determines artistic merit, then critics can affect the artistic merit of a work, thus justifying the conclusion.

Key Takeaway:
In Strengthen with Sufficient Premise questions, the conclusion will frequently introduce a new term or concept that hasn't shown up in the premises. Since a valid conclusion needs to justify its elements with premises, this is a problem for the argument. Your job is to fix it by connecting that idea to a concept established in the premise!

Incorrect. This answer might explain how the critics can have such influence over viewers, but that just explains a premise, and since we accept them as true justifying it doesn't help the argument.

Incorrect. Understanding what gives a work artistic merit doesn't guarantee that that merit depends on the critics' work.

Incorrect. Even if most people have the pleasure they get from a piece of art affected by a critic, that still doesn't connect to artistic merit and thus the argument still makes a large assumption.

Incorrect. This answer extends the effect that critics have on people's pleasure to everyone—however, that still doesn't connect this to artistic merit, and so it doesn't justify the conclusion.