It is highly likely that Claudette is a classical pianist. Like most

Very intersting question, the explanation matches a theory described in the book "Thinking fast and slow", something which helped my logical thinking quite a bit.

It is cool to see a real life application of these concepts, I went with E following that approach and it worked out.

I don't get why E is correct. Doesn't the statement "The vast majority of people who are not classical pianists do not (recognize many of Schumann's works)" contradict with E?

The vast majority of people who are not classical pianists do not(recognise her).

In view of above statement, how can we pick E as answer.

Kindly explain

Try drawing possible venn diagrams for these three groups:

--People who recognize Clara Schurmann's work.
--Classical Pianists
--Not classical pianist.

We know that Most classical pianists recognize Clara Schurmann's work. What does that tell you about the overlap of these two circles (and where is there 'flexibility'?)

We know that most people who are not classical pianists do not recognize Clara Schurmann's work. What does that tell you of the overlap of these circle (and where is there 'flexibility?')

We know there is no overlap of classical pianists and not classical pianists.

See where the circles can 'stretch.'

And consider, does the sentence "Most pianists know the works of Clara Schurmann" really imply "Most people who know the works of Clara Schurmann are classical pianists?"

Let's take a look at (E).

(E) ignores the possibility that the majority of people who recognize many of Clara Schumann's works are not classical pianists.

We see that (E) is about "people who recognize many of Clara Schumann's works."

On the other hand, the part of the passage you cited is about "people who are not classical pianists."

So, (E) and the portion of the passage you cited are actually two different groups of people with some crossover.

If you think about it, even if most "people who are not classical pianists" do not recognize her works, it could still be that most "people who recognize many of Clara Schumann's works" are not classical pianists.

For example, there could be a 100 people, of whom 5 are classical pianists.

Among those, all 5 classical pianists recognize her works along with 10 other people who do.

So, only 10/95 "people who are not classical pianists recognize her works, but 10/15 "people who recognize many of Clara Schumann's works" are not classical pianists.

Thus, it's the case both that "The vast majority of people who are not classical pianists do not (recognize her)" and that "the majority of people who recognize many of Clara Schumann's works are not classical pianists.

It is highly likely that Claudette is a classical pianist. Like most classical pianists, Claudette recognizes many of Clara Schumann's works. The vast majority of people who are not classical pianists do not. in fact, many people who are not classical pianists have not even heard of Clara Schumann.

The reasoning in the argument above is flawed in that:

(A) ignores the possibility that Claudette is more familiar with the works of other composers of music for piano - WRONG. Familiarity is irrelevant.
(B) presumes, without providing justification, that people who have not heard of Clara Schumann do not recognize her works - WRONG. The reasoning put forward in this one doesn't make sense. It's same one way or the other.
(C) presumes, without providing justification, that classical pianists cannot also play other musical instruments - WRONG. Plain irrelevant.
(D) relies for its plausibility on the vagueness of the term "classical" - WRONG. Irrelevant.
(E) ignores the possibility that the majority of people who recognize many of Clara Schumann's works are not classical pianists. - CORRECT. The sets that can overlap create a confusion and this choice uses that to its advantage to confuse. However, POE helps choosing this one.

It's between B and E but B is plain wrong.

Answer E.