The German baroque composer J.S. Bach notated most of the melodic line

The question requires you to have understanding of argument structure.

The German baroque composer J.S. Bach notated most of the melodic lines in his works, leaving little room for interpretation by performers. An unnamed baroque composition was recently discovered in a church in Germany. Since the composition contains numerous notated melodic lines, it is probably a work of J.S. Bach.

Argument structure:

1. J.S. Bach notated most of the melodic lines in his works
2. made clear notations, so other interpretation not required by performers
3. unnamed baroque composition was recently discovered
4. discovered composition contains numerous notated melodic lines

Conclusion : it is probably a work of J.S. Bach

Argument is relating the notated lines in discovered composition to the works of Bach with assumption that notated melodic lines is typical of Mr. Bach compositions.

The only feasible option is D.

D. The anonymously composed keyboard piece Tune for the Woodlark is probably a baroque composition since it is written for the harpsichord, which was the most common keyboard instrument employed by baroque composers.

Woodlark --------uncovered musical compositions

baroque compositions ----------- Mr. Bach

baroque composers--------------- Notated musical lines

Hope I made it clear.

This was solvable but took a lot of time. Do you advise to spend 5 minutes and get one CR question right. Or is it better to move on once one realises, after spending 2 minutes, that it will take much more time. Thanks.

Down and Dirty method.
If u use pen and write the logic quickly.
Then u will nail the similar one in 2 minutes given it's toughness.
E.g u scribble... A often does Q. Any Q seen is done by A.

Posted from my mobile device

You already know the answer to that! If it seems like it will take too much time, just move on.
But don't let that be the takeaway from this question. This question is about recognising the structure of the argument. The hard part is the data used (Bach, baroque etc). The same thing written using an illustration from your field of study would be very simple for you. Learn to ignore the wordy data and focus on logic - that usually will be straight forward. If you do that, the question will be solved in 2-3 mins.

my issue with mimic type questions is knowing what your variables stand for. Any advice to do this quickly and correctly?

I got this answer incorrect during my Veritas test ( I could not solve this in time constraint to be honest :P )
But, deep introspection and good posts on this forum helped me crack it.

I have structuralized the options and tried to compare it with the given structure. Please go through

Statement 1:
J S Bach notated most of the melodic lines of his works.
Statement 2:
Recently, an unnamed baroque was discovered. And it is probably a work of J S Bach.
Sentence structure:
X did Y most of the times. Recently Y item has been discovered and thus it belongs to X.
Flaw: Every Y belongs to X.
Which one of the following contains a pattern of flawed reasoning most similar to that in the argument above?
A. Most baroque composers wrote for a single instrument, such as organ or harpsichord. Since The German Organ Mass was originally written for the organ, its composer probably always wrote for the organ.

Sentence structure: A group of X's wrote for a single instrument Y. GO was a type of Y and thus its composer (X) always wrote for Y.

There is a flaw here as it generalizes the work of X, but here there is no claim whether every GO or element Y belongs to X. Incorrect.

B. In baroque musical works, the single most common subject is religion, so the single most common subject in all baroque art forms is also religion.
X has a common subject Y. So Y is common in Z.
Flaw: Author confuses and assigns Y to Z on basis of its assignment to X.
Not parallel to the structure as perceived.

C. Works of art in the baroque period were mostly commissioned by patrons, so the baroque musical composition Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue was probably commissioned by a patron.
X ( patrons) composed Y ( art in BP) . Z was composed by X ( a patron).
Flaw: again author confuses two different schools to one. The flaw is again not parallel.
While solving this question, I wrongly interpreted music as art and thus marked it correct.
D. The anonymously composed keyboard piece Tune for the Woodlark is probably a baroque composition since it is written for the harpsichord, which was the most common keyboard instrument employed by baroque composers.
X was composed by Y (baroque composers). An anonymous X is found and is a composition of Y
Flaw: Every X belongs to Y and hence this is our answer.
E. Since baroque musical compositions were mostly concerned with religious subjects, the baroque composer Charles Racquet, whose works are now lost, probably composed music mostly concerned with religious subjects.
Structure:
X compositions were for Y. Z composed for Y.
Flaw: Confuses X ( composition) with some random Z ( composer)
But this flaw is not parallel and hence incorrect.

Regards,
Rishav

OFFICIAL ANSWER

This mimic question asks you to find the argument with a pattern of reasoning with the same flaw as the original. The flaw in reasoning for the original is that 'just because most X are Y does not mean that any particular Y is likely to be an X'. Answer (D) has a similar flaw because there might be other harpsichord pieces that were not written during the baroque period. Answers (A), (C), and (E) are not flawed. Answer (B) is flawed because it generalizes from a specific case, which is not the same flaw in the original argument.

OA is D

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