The Sumpton town council recently voted to pay a prominent artist to c

The Sumpton town council recently voted to pay a prominent artist to create an abstract sculpture for the town square. Critics of this decision protested that town residents tend to dislike most abstract art, and any art in the town square should reflect their tastes. But a town council spokesperson dismissed this criticism, pointing out that other public abstract sculptures that the same sculptor has installed in other cities have been extremely popular with those cities’ local residents.

The statements above most strongly suggest that the main point of disagreement between the critics and the spokesperson is whether

A. it would have been reasonable to consult town residents on the decision
B. most Sumpton residents will find the new sculpture to their taste - correct - The spokeperson and critic debate popularity of abstract art among local residents with popularity of art among residents of other cities.
C. abstract sculptures by the same sculptor have truly been popular in other cities
D. a more traditional sculpture in the town square would be popular among local residents
E. public art that the residents of Sumpton would find desirable would probably be found desirable by the residents of other cities

Hii Expert I got it wrong...so what is the Thought Process I need to have to answer such Questions please....

A quick point on why not D (D being the trap answer):

Option D says "a more traditional sculpture in the town square would be popular among local residents". The passage keeps talking about whether or not the people will like "abstract" sculpture basis similar work liked in some other city.

To catch the trap, notice that Option D plays on our mind, which would easily believe that something which is not abstract is traditional! However, that may not be true... If the two sides are debating on whether abstract will be liked or not, it is not equal to debating on whether traditional will be liked. Non-abstract is not equal to Traditional.

The Sumpton town council recently voted to pay a prominent artist to create an abstract sculpture for the town square. Critics of this decision protested that town residents tend to dislike most abstract art, and any art in the town square should reflect their tastes. But a town council spokesperson dismissed this criticism, pointing out that other public abstract sculptures that the same sculptor has installed in other cities have been extremely popular with those cities’ local residents.

Boil it down - even though most residents of Sumpton dislike most abstract art, in this case, they will like because sculptures made by the same artists in other cities have been extremely popular in those cities
The statements above most strongly suggest that the main point of disagreement between the critics and the spokesperson is whether

A. it would have been reasonable to consult town residents on the decision - Incorrect
B. most Sumpton residents will find the new sculpture to their taste - Correct
C. abstract sculptures by the same sculptor have truly been popular in other cities - Incorrect - there is no disagreement on this
D. a more traditional sculpture in the town square would be popular among local residents - Incorrect - the parties don't disagree on this
E. public art that the residents of Sumpton would find desirable would probably be found desirable by the residents of other cities - ISWAT - this is essentially the opposite

Answer B

E. public art that the residents of Sumpton would find desirable would probably be found desirable by the residents of other cities

I was wondering if we rephrase choice E to say the opposite, i.e,"public art that the residents of other cities would find desirable would probably be found desirable by the residents of Sumpton", do we have a correct answer? In this case, which one would be the more correct choice, B or E?

In that case, E would be going in the right direction, but it would be a bit indirect. The opinion of people in other cities is being used to support the idea that this new abstract sculpture will be to the taste of Sumpton's residents. If they like what others like, that might help, but the point is not really about whether they would like those other works.

Having said that, we don't generally want to play the game of "more correct," since an answer is either correct or not. We'll never have two correct choices and be forced to pick the better one.

Hi GMATNinja GMATNinjaTwo

Could you please explain how did we justify the "most" in option B- most Sumpton residents will find the new sculpture to their taste?

Thanks!

We've done a breakdown of the passage here. Take a look at that post first, then we'll take another look at (B) and how we can justify using "most" in this answer choice.

(B) tells us:

First, looking very closely at the wording of the question, the main thing to keep in mind here is the wording of the first part of the question: The statements above most strongly suggest that the main point of disagreement... The use of the word suggests here gives us a little room for maneuver in how we make inferences from the passage.

As we said in the passage breakdown, we can say:

• Critics believe the town residents will NOT like the abstract sculpture
• The spokesperson infers...that the abstract sculpture installed in Sumpton will be popular with Sumpton residents

Sumpton residents are a group of people. Think about what it means to say that a group of people will like something. We don't need all the people in that group need to like something to say the group will like it. However, we'd normally need a majority of a group to like something before we would say the group likes it.

The main point of disagreement between the critics and the spokesperson is whether most of Sumpton's residents will like the statue because this is the same as disagreeing over whether the group will like the statue.

For that reason, the use of most in (B) is justified and (B) is the answer to this question.

I hope that helps!

The Sumpton town council recently voted to pay a prominent artist to create an abstract sculpture for the town square. Critics of this decision protested that town residents tend to dislike most abstract art, ....... But a town council spokesperson dismissed this criticism, pointing out that other public abstract sculptures that the same sculptor has installed in other cities have been extremely popular with those cities’ local residents.

If we take a closer look at the argument above, we get to see that the argument is constructed around ''the quality/type" of art that the artist has been hired to set up at the Town square and whether this new art would meet the local residents' taste.

only (B) reflects this school of thought perfectly.

B. most Sumpton residents will find the new sculpture to their taste

Therefore, (B) is the right answer choice.



PS: Please feel free to DM me if you feel like you need help with the CR/SC sections of the GMAT.

The Sumpton town council recently voted to pay a prominent artist to create an abstract sculpture for the town square. Critics of this decision protested that town residents tend to dislike most abstract art, and any art in the town square should reflect their tastes. But a town council spokesperson dismissed this criticism, pointing out that other public abstract sculptures that the same sculptor has installed in other cities have been extremely popular with those cities’ local residents.

Critics : town residents dislike most abstract art.
Town council : the abstract art from the same artist in other cities are liked by local residents.

-> Disagreement is whether residents will like or dislike,

The statements above most strongly suggest that the main point of disagreement between the critics and the spokesperson is whether

A. it would have been reasonable to consult town residents on the decision
-> No notion about consult is made in the argument.

B. most Sumpton residents will find the new sculpture to their taste
-> Correct. Critics and spokesman are having disagreement in whether people will like or dislike.

C. abstract sculptures by the same sculptor have truly been popular in other cities
-> Incorrect. The critics does not question whether the assertion made by town council is true or not.

D. a more traditional sculpture in the town square would be popular among local residents
-> Incorrect. No mention of traditional sculpture has been made. Furthermore, no guarantee is provided to say the opposite of abstract art is traditional art.

E. public art that the residents of Sumpton would find desirable would probably be found desirable by the residents of other cities
-> Irrelevant. The art form in Sumpton being loved by other cities' residents is not an issue in this argument.

Passage Analysis

The Sumpton town council recently voted to pay a prominent artist to create an abstract sculpture for the town square.
The town council of Sumpton recently decided on vote to bring a prominent artist to make an abstract sculpture for the town square and pay him/her.

Critics of this decision protested that town residents tend to dislike most abstract art, and any art in the town square should reflect their tastes.
People who do not support this move (critics) have two points
1. Town residents do not like most abstract art.
2. Any art in town square should reflect the townspeople’s taste.

But a town council spokesperson dismissed this criticism,
Yet, the town council’s representative invalidated this criticism.

pointing out that other public abstract sculptures that the same sculptor has installed in other cities have been extremely popular with those cities’ local residents.
The reason for the invalidation is that this artist’s abstract creations have been installed in other cities and the people there liked them.

Question Stem Analysis

The statements above most strongly suggest that the main point of disagreement between the critics and the spokesperson is whether

This peculiar question stem asks for the logical gap in the passage. In other words, it wants us to determine the main point of disagreement (which is not stated above) between the spokesperson and the critics.

Prethinking

The critics raise two points here.
1. Town residents do not like most abstract art.
2. Any art in town square should reflect the townspeople’s taste.

The town council representative addresses only the first point as in general, experience according to other cities is that people like the abstract art installation in their town square.
The second point is not addressed as the first one is where the contention lies. The town council hence too thinks that the art should reflect the townspeople’s taste. However they believe that the abstract sculpture coming up will do exactly that.
Hence the prethought answer is
The people of Sumpton will find the abstract art installation coming up in the town square to their taste.

Answer Choice Analysis

A. it would have been reasonable to consult town residents on the decision
INCORRECT
This is not a point raised by either party. Hence this cannot be the point of contention.

B. most Sumpton residents will find the new sculpture to their taste
CORRECT
This is in line with our Prethinking. Hence, this statement is the correct answer.

C. abstract sculptures by the same sculptor have truly been popular in other cities
INCORRECT
Nobody questions the town council spokesperson’s claim that the artist’s works in other cities have been popular. Hence this is not the point of disagreement.

D. a more traditional sculpture in the town square would be popular among local residents
INCORRECT
Whether the townspeople like traditional sculptures is not the point of contention as nobody raised this point. The point of contention is regarding the abstract sculpture, not traditional sculpture.

E. public art that the residents of Sumpton would find desirable would probably be found desirable by the residents of other cities
INCORRECT
Whether the likings of Sumpton’s people is similar to other city dwellers is not discussed in the passage. Hence this cannot be the correct answer.

Can anyone help explaining why option A is wrong?
A. it would have been reasonable to consult town residents on the decision

Posted from my mobile device

­Would the critics and spokesperson disagree about (A)? To answer that, let's first determine how the spokesperson would feel about it.

Would the spokesperson agree or disagree with this statement? Well, we know the spokesperson has dimissed the critics. Why? Because "other abstract scultpres that the same sculptor has installed in other cities have been extremely popular with those cities' local residents." So does the spokesperson think it would have been unreasonable to consult with town residents about the decision?

Unfortunately, we don't really know. Apparently, the spokesperson thinks the sculpture will be popular with the town's residents. But this doesn't clarify whether it would reasonable or not to consult with the residents. In other words, just because the spokesperson dismisses the critics doesn't mean the spokesperson is opposed to consulting with the residents. After all, maybe a consultation with the residents would confirm that they like the sculpture, even if it is abstract?

At the same time, we have no good reason to think the spokesperson would support consulting with the residents. Maybe the spokesperson is so confident in the sculpture that he/she thinks consulting would be silly and unreasonable? So we really don't know how he/she would feel about consulting with residents.

Bottom line, since we don't know how the spokesperson would feel about (A) with any certainty, we can't say that it's a point of disagreement with the critics. For that reason, (A) is incorrect.

I hope that helps!­­­