Zachary: The term “fresco” refers to paint that has been applied to wet plaster. Once dried, a fresco indelibly preserves the paint that a painter has applied in this way. Unfortunately, additions known to have been made by later painters have obscured the original fresco work done by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. Therefore, in order to restore Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel paintings to the appearance that Michelangelo intended them to have, everything except the original fresco work must be stripped away.
Stephen: But it was extremely common for painters of Michelangelo’s era to add painted details to their own fresco work after the frescos had dried.
1. Stephen’s response to Zachary proceeds by
(A) calling into question an assumption on which Zachary’s conclusion depends
(B) challenging the definition of a key term in Zachary reaches
(C) drawing a conclusion other than the one that Zachary reaches
(D) denying the truth of one of the stated premises of Zachary’s argument
(E) demonstrating that Zachary’s conclusion is not consistent with the premises he uses to support it
2. Stephen’s response to Zachary, if true, most strongly supports which one of the following?
(A) It is impossible to distinguish the later painted additions made to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel paintings from the original fresco work.
(B) Stripping away everything except Michelangelo’s original fresco work from the Sistine Chapel paintings would be unlikely to restore them to the appearance Michelangelo intended them to have.
(C) The painted details that painters of Michelangelo’s era added to their own fresco work were not an integral part of the completed paintings’ overall design.
(D) None of the painters of Michelangelo’s era who made additions to the Sistine Chapel paintings was important artist in his or her own right.
(E) Michelangelo was rarely satisfied with the appearance of his finished works.
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Cheers,
SD

IMO
1. D- Unfortunately, additions known to have been made by later painters have obscured the original fresco work done by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel. - Stephen denies this premise.

2. B

Question 1: I would go for A because Zachary's conclusion is based on the assumption that anything that is above the al fresco layer was not the final intention of the artist. Stephen attacks that by saying that it was common for painters to wait for the al fresco to dry before finishing their painting.

Question 2: I would pick B because it is a "must be true" question in disguise. From Stephen's response, what can we infer ? What must be true ? B uses the same extreme words as in Zachary's conclusion "everything except MA al fresco .." and basically says that it's not by stripping all the additional paint layers out that it will restore the initial appearance that MA wanted to have.

1->A
2-> B

Did both in 1min 30 seconds
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A B ...looked complicated but was relatively simple

I'd go for A & B
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Kidchaos

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The answer is A & B. Let me try explaining...
For Q1) Zachary - He defines a "fresco". He gives a counter premise saying additions have been done on Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel paintings (At this point I visualized it something like - a) Original Fresco b)Layer 1 - By painter X and c) Layer 2 - By painter Y...) So now Zachary states (concludes) that if one wants the original Michelangelo fresco appearance then one should remove the add-on layers 1,2..

Zachary has now assumed in his conclusion that only the original fresco was drawn by Michelangelo and the add-on layers are that of later painters only.

Stephen - He counter argues saying that one of the layers could be that of Michelangelo's himself.

So now even before reading the question one can see that
- Stephen has attacked Zachary's assumption stating that if one removes all the layers then he/she might end up removing say the layer which could be of Michelangelo himself. Thus stripping the paintings to their original fresco state might not give us the appearance that Michelangelo intended them to have. Thus A.

Looking at the other options -
B) Is Stephen challenging the "fresco" definition? No
C) Is Stephen drawing a conclusion? No - He's simply giving a counter premise.
D) Denying the truth? Nope...He's denying the validity of the conclusion.
E) Slightly tricky to answer. Stephen is counter questioning Zachary's assumption and not his premise.

For Q2) Coming back to the stimulus. Since it is a "Must be true" type of question I am trying to extract the gist out of the given premises. Now if Stephen is true and if one of the paint layer on top of the original fresco was that of Michelangelo then it tells me that the original fresco was just a work in progress and his final product was one of the "layered" view. So if you want Michelangelo's intended view then you have to extract that layered view because stripping the paintings down to their frescoes might just give me Michelangelo's work-in-progress view. This inference is best given by B.

Looking at the other options -
A) Impossible (extreme view so immediate apprehension about this answer). Also, nowhere it is mentioned that we cannot distinguish the later painted additions.
C) Difficult to conclude this.
D) None (again extreme view). Sort of out of scope.
E) As stated, far too generic.