Why not D and "Must be True"

@Kahanding (D) does not pass the Must Be True prong of Main Point questions and it is definitely not the main point here. Nowhere in the stimulus is anything mentioned about the general public being able to or not able to understand the theories on which abstract painting is based. This passage is about why figurative painting revived in the late 1970s. The reason set forth by the author? "People want to look at recognizable images." (E) is the correct answer because it restates this conclusion, i.e. "The artistic preference of the art viewing public stimulated the revival." Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any other questions.

do small things like "general public" in the answer choice vs. "art viewing public" in the passage become easier to recognize with more practice??

@Madelyn-Luskey Subtle changes like that do become more noticeable as you practice more, but also just as you learn to look for that. In this case, while it does help to note the switch from "art viewing public" to "general public," the most important reason D is wrong is that it addresses an issue that the prompt doesn't: whether the public (of any sort) can understand the theories in abstract paintings. In fact, it seems like it assumes that the art-viewing public CAN parse them out, but it takes work ("sorting out art theories...")

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Im not sure what the main point is

Hi @Remone-Davis, thanks for your post. The main point can be found in the first couple of sentences of this stimulus: "There is no mystery as to why figurative painting revived in the late 1970s. People want to look at recognizable images." That's it. People were tired of abstract art and their artistic preferences stimulated the revival of figurative painting in the late 1970s. Hope that helps! Please let us know if you have any additional questions.

Why is the explanation button missing ? I need explanations.

@Remone-Davis, While there are video explanations for most questions, there are still some for which there are not video explanations out yet. In the meantime, I'm happy to go through a written explanation of this question. Let's take a look. We're told that figurative painting was revived in the late 1970s because people want to look at recognizable things. The rest of the stimulus is used to support the overall conclusion of the stimulus, which is expressed in the first two sentences ("There is no mystery as to why figurative painting revived in the late 1970s. People want to look at recognizable images"). For supporting the conclusion, we're told that abstract painting doesn't provide people with empathy as realistic paintings do, and perhaps members of the art viewing public resented abstract art because it rejected the real world. The question asks, "Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?" For main point questions, it's best to anticipate the main point before looking at the answer choices. That way, we have the conclusion in mind and are simply looking for an answer choice that paraphrases the conclusion we've identified in the stimulus. In the passage, the main point is the first two sentences of the stimulus. People's desire to look at recognizable images explains why figurative painting revived in the late 1970s. We know this is the conclusion because the rest of the stimulus/passage serves as supporting evidence for this assertion. Now that we've identified the conclusion, let's look for the answer choice that best expresses this. (A) says, "Abstract paintings often include shapes or forms that are suggestive of real objects or emotions." The argument actually claims that abstract paintings deal more with reflecting art theories than they do with real things, so (A) is out. (B) says, "The art-viewing public wished to see traditional subjects treated in a nontraditional manner." We were told that people want to look at recognizable things, so people desired a revival of realism, which is older in tradition than its abstractionism counterpart. As a result, (B) is out. (C) says, "Paintings that depict a recognizable physical world rather than the emotional world of the artist’s life require more artistic talent to create." The problem with (C) is that the argument in the stimulus doesn't make a claim regarding talent. Rather, the argument makes a claim about public preference ("People want to look at recognizable images"). As a result, we can get rid of this answer choice. (D) says, "The general public is unable to understand the theories on which abstract painting is based." The public's ability to understand (or lack thereof) is not something that is discussed in the stimulus. What the argument is concerned with is the public's preference. Since this answer choice deals with something that isn't discussed in the passage, we can get rid of it. (E) says, "The artistic preferences of the art-viewing public stimulated the revival." (E) provides us with an excellent paraphrasing of the first two sentences of the stimulus, which is what we had identified as the overall conclusion/main point of the stimulus. This answer choice is great, and it's the correct answer choice. Does this make sense? Let us know if you have any more questions!

hello, I was wondering if someone could provide a reasoning for why each of the questions in this practice set deemed as "flawed". for example, providing a list with the question number and beside it that the conclusion is too broad based on the premises etc beside it.

Hi, I think this is actually a great exercise for you to try out! As you go through this question type, try to consider why each argument is flawed- which should prepare you well for error, weaken, and strengthen questions in the future. You should also take a look at the "33 common lsat flaws" resource, which I think is in the errors in reasoning lesson.