Stage performances are judged to be realistic to the degree that actors reproduce on stage the behaviors generally associated by audiences with the emotional states of the characters portrayed. Traditional actors imitate those behaviors, whereas Method actors, through recollection of personal experience, actually experience the same emotions that their characters are meant to be experiencing. Audiences will therefore judge the performances of Method actors to be more realistic than the performances of traditional actors.
Which one of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?
(A) Performances based on an actor’s own experience of emotional states are more likely to affect an audience’s emotions than are performances based on imitations of the behaviors generally associated with those emotional states.
(B) The behavior that results when a Method actor feels a certain emotion will conform to the behavior that is generally associated by audiences with that emotion.
(C) Realism is an essential criterion for evaluating the performances of both traditional actors and Method actors.
(D) Traditional actors do not aim to produce performances that are realistic representations of a character’s emotional states.
(E) In order to portray a character, a Method actor need not have had experiences identical to those of the character portrayed.
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Regards, S

I will go with (A)..

Negating (A) : Audience has no feeling. So, they will not be able to judge between Realistic and Imitation. Contradictory to argument.

We are not evaluating the performance. We are evaluating which is more realistic. So this is kinda out of scope choice.

"B"....."C" is more like a conclusion.

Fact: actor has to do 2 things 1) feel audience emotions and 2) get into character....."B" says method actor only does # 2....so 1) has to be assumed.

The conclusion here is:
Performances by method actors are judged to be more realistic than traditional actors because method actors experience the emotions of their characters.

In order for this conclusion to hold, we need to find something along the line "experiencing emotions of the character will enable an actor to play the role more realistically"

(A) Performances based on an actor’s own experience of emotional states are more likely to affect an audience’s emotions than are performances based on imitations of the behaviors generally associated with those emotional states.
- Not concern with the audience's emotions

(B) The behavior that results when a Method actor feels a certain emotion will conform to the behavior that is generally associated by audiences with that emotion.
- By conforming to the emotion that audiences associate with a character, it means the audience will feel that the method actor is more realistic in their performance.

(C) Realism is an essential criterion for evaluating the performances of both traditional actors and Method actors.
- We're not concerned with evalutating the performances of method/traditional actors. We're only concerned with how experiencing the emotions makes the performance more realistic.

(D) Traditional actors do not aim to produce performances that are
realistic representations of a character’s emotional states.
- Not important.

(E) In order to portray a character, a Method actor need not have had experiences identical to those of the character portrayed
- Not important.

B it is.

B it is.

Because Method actors experience the same emotions that their characters are meant to be experiencing, the author conclude that audiences judge the performance of Method actors more realistic.

Therefore, the assumption is that the behavior conforms to the behavior that is generally associated by audiences with that emotion.

Such kinds of CR question are really hard to read and understand for me.
Any suggestion?

My input:
I also easily eliminated CDE but remember if you tweak the last couple of lines of the extract you will realize that A poses as a conclusionary result...only B stands as an assumption...something "understood to be true" to reach the conclusion