Theater Critic: The play La Finestrina, now at CentralTheater, was wri

Solution
Passage Analysis

Theater Critic: The play La Finestrina, now at Central Theater,
A theater critic says that the play La Finestrina, which is currently playing at Central Theater,

was written in Italy in the eighteenth century.
Was originally written in the 18th century in Italy.

The director claims that this production
The director of the play La Finestrina says that his theatrical production

is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater.
Is as similar to the original written play as is possible to produce a written play in the modern theater.

Although the actor who plays Harlequin the clown
In spite of the fact that, the actor who plays the role of Harlequin, the clown

 gives a performance very reminiscent of the twentieth-century American comedian Groucho Marx,
gives a performance that reminds one of the performance of the twentieth-century American comedian Groucho Marx,

Marx’s comic style was very much within the comic acting tradition that had begun in sixteenth-century Italy.
Marx himself displayed a comic style that was in keeping with the comic acting style that had begun in 16th century Italy.

Gist of the passage

• The play La Finestrina was originally written in the 18th century in Italy
• A theater critic talks about a director who has produced a theatrical presentation of the same play and it is now playing in Central Theater.
• This director claims that he has kept his theatrical production of the play as similar to the written version as it is possible to, when one is adapting a written play to modern-theater production
• The play has a character called Harlequin, the clown.
• The theater critic comments that the actor who enacts the role of Harlequin gives a performance that reminds one of the 20th century American comedian, Groucho Marx.
• Though Marx was a 20th century actor, his comic style was very much in keeping with the comic acting style that had begun in the 16th century.
• We can infer here that the actor who played Harlequin in the modern production actually used a comic style that had begun in the 16th century and was also used by Groucho in the 20th century.

Question stem analysis
The considerations given best serve as part of an argument that
The information given in the passage acts as the strongest logical support to which of the following options?

Answer Choice Analysis

A
Understand the choice

The option talks about the reaction of the modern audiences viewing the modern production of a play written in the 18th century. It says that the audience would not find it easy to bear certain characteristics of the older century play.

Analyze in the context of the passage and the question stem

The passage talks about director's claim that in his theater production of the play he had adhered to the original play as much as was possible to when adapting a written play to a theater. Does the passage imply that the modern play was an absolutely accurate performance of an 18th-century play? No.
The critic commented that the performance of an actor in the theatrical production reminded one of another comedian of the 20th century who had followed a 16th-century comic acting style. But does the critic talk at all about the reaction of the audience? No.
Therefore, no comment can be made about the tolerance level of the audience.

Hence this is not the correct answer.

B

Understand the choice

As per this option, Groucho Marx had earlier played the role of the character Harlequin in La Finestrina

Analyze in the context of the passage and the question stem

The passage only talks about the comic acting style of Groucho Marx who acted in the 20th century. He followed a style of comic acting that had begun in the 16th century. And the passage tells us that the actor who played the role of harlequin in the theater production of the play La Finestrina performed in such a way that he reminded one of Marx. But whether Marx had ever played that same part earlier or not cannot be concluded. Here we can infer that the style of the two actors might have been quite similar, but we cannot comment the same about the role played by the two.

Hence this is not the correct option.

C
Understand the choice

This choice states that in the 20th century the actors in the U.S. were trained on the basis of principles that were not much different from the principles that lay behind the training of actors in 18th century Italy.

Analyze in the context of the passage and the question stem

The option means that actors in 18th century Italy and actors in the 20th century U.S. were both trained along the lines of similar principles of acting. The passage talks about Groucho, one comedian, who followed the comic style of acting that had begun in the 16th century. Whether he was trained or not, do we know? No.  Was the comic acting style that had begun in the 16th century still followed in the 18th century or the 20th century? We don’t really know except for Marx. One case cannot be representative of the general.

Hence, this is not the correct option.

D
Understand the choice

The performance of the actor who plays Harlequin in the theater production “La Finestrina”, does not contradict the claim made by the director of the play.

Analyze in the context of the passage and the question stem

The critic commented that the performance of the actor who played Harlequin in the theatrical production reminded one of another comedian of the 20th century who had followed a 16th-century comic acting style. The director too claims to have adhered to the original 18th-century production as much as was possible. We, therefore, know that both the director and the actor followed the styles of an earlier period, and we can thus infer that some of the period and the prevalent style may have been common to both.

Thus, we can say that the actor’s performance was not going against what the director had claimed. Rather it was in keeping with the claim.

Hence, this is the correct option.

E
Understand the choice

The director of the play La Finestrina must have told the actor who played the part of harlequin to follow the comic style Groucho Marx.

Analyze in the context of the passage and the question stem

The director of the play wanted to keep his production as similar as possible to the original earlier version. He may have advised his actors to follow a certain school of acting or he may not. He may have told his actor playing Harlequin to follow Marx or he may not. Can we say this for sure? No. Marx might have been that actor’s role model and so he followed Marx…we don’t really know.

Hence, this is not the right answer choice.
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Responding to a pm:

It is an inference/conclusion question.

Question stem: The considerations given best serve as part of an argument that

What this means: The given argument supports the argument that ... i.e. the information given to us will best be a part of which of the following arguments? i.e. what is the author trying to say by giving you this information?
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________________________________
can someone explain between C and D?

C: why do you want to generalize that the training of 'all' actors is based on the principles ...?
D: to the point, only talks about the actor who played Harlequin.

I'll give it a try...

premise 1: The play La Finestrina was written and performed ('director claims that this production is as similar to the original production') in Italy in the 18th century.

premise 2: "Although the actor who plays............sixteenth-century Italy." this statement implies that the performance of the actor who played harlenquin was within the comic acting tradition that had begun in the 16th century.

conclusion: the director claims that the production is quite similar to the original production in modern theater.

now closely look at the premise 2.... premise 2, in no way does it support (since no one knows how the actors during the 18th century performed the show) or, as a matter of fact, oppose (since the actor who plays harlequin now represents the style of the 16th century Italians, his act might have been similar to the act performed in the 18th century) the director's claim...

A. characteristics of the historically accurate performance in not known.
B. this is definitely not known to us, it is not mentioned in the argument.
C. this is a sweeping generalization, not necessarily true.
D. yeah.. this statement is true. as we have seen above, the performance of the actor does not serve as evidence against the director's claim.
E. this cannot be said. it need not be the director who advised the actor, the producer or any other member of the crew could have advised him to model marx's performance. having said that, the actor imitating marx could have been intentional, but not necessarily on the director's advise.

Answer:D

i hope my explanation is clear...

Theater Critic: The play La Finestrina, now at Central Theater, was written in Italy in the eighteenth century. The director claims that this production is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater. Although the actor who plays Harlequin the clown gives a performance very reminiscent of the twentieth-century American comedian Groucho Marx, Marx’s comic style was very much within the comic acting tradition that had begun in sixteenth-century Italy.

The considerations given best serve as part of an argument that

(A) modern audiences would find it hard to tolerate certain characteristics of a historically accurate performance of an eighteenth-century play

(B) Groucho Marx once performed the part of the character Harlequin in La Finestrina

(C) in the United States the training of actors in the twentieth century is based on principles that do not differ radically from those that underlay the training of actors in eighteenth-century Italy

(D) the performance of the actor who plays Harlequin in La Finestrina does not serve as evidence against the director’s claim

(E) the director of La Finestrina must have advised the actor who plays Harlequin to model his performance on comic performances of Groucho Marx



can anyone give a simple stucture of this argument?
which is premise, which is conclusion?
how can i analyse the logical chain?
thanks so much

Simple terms. A play that was staged in the 18th century is running in a theatre. The director says "I have tried to retain max originality that can be done in a modern theatre." But one actor(comedian) is imitating styles of a 20th century actor.

So there is a direct contradiction saying that 18th century originality is lost

But the 20th century actors style dates to the 16th century, which means that the comedian's act does not contradict the say of the director, as the comedian is imitating the 16th century style.

Hope this helps

Theater Critic:The play La Finestrina, now at Central Theater, was written in Italy in the eighteenth century. The director claims that this production is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater. Although the actor who plays Harlequin the clown gives a performance very reminiscent of the twentieth-century American comedian Groucho Marx, Marx’s comic style was very much within the comic acting tradition that had begun in sixteenth-century Italy.
The considerations given best serve as part of an argument that

Question Stem
The considerations given best serve as part of an argument that
Inference Question. So answer MUST BE TRUE.

Argument
Theater Critic:The play La Finestrina, now at Central Theater, was written in Italy in the eighteenth century. The director claims that this production is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater. Although the actor who plays Harlequin the clown gives a performance very reminiscent of the twentieth-century American comedian Groucho Marx, Marx’s comic style was very much within the comic acting tradition that had begun in sixteenth-century Italy.

Answer Choices

(A) modern audiences would find it hard to tolerate certain characteristics of a historically accurate performance of an eighteenth-century play
INCORRECT ANSWER - The passage does not state this. None of the information in the passage leads us to believe this

(B) Groucho Marx once performed the part of the character Harlequin in La Finestrina
INCORRECT ANSWER - Though one may think that this is correct, there is nothing in the passage that suggest this option

(C) in the United States the training of actors in the twentieth century is based on principles that do not differ
radically from those that underlay the training of actors in eighteenth-century Italy
INCORRECT ANSWER - Training is Out of Scope. The argument is not talking about the training of actors here.

(D) the performance of the actor who plays Harlequin in La Finestrina does not serve as evidence against the director’s claim
CORRECT ANSWER - This is TRUE. It is not an evidence against the Director's claim that this production is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater

(E) the director of La Finestrina must have advised the actor who plays Harlequin to model his performance on comic performances of Groucho Marx
INCORRECT ANSWER - The actor could have himself decided to model his performance on Marx. We have no information to deduce this fact.

I do not know what to look for in answer choices. this question is hard because we do not know what to do with answer choices.

what is purpose of this consideration?

is the type of question here

As I said above, it is an inference/conclusion question. The wording of the question is a little typical, I agree, and you need to put in some effort to figure out what it means. The gist of the question is: what is the author trying to say by giving you this information? What can you infer/conclude from the given argument?

Argument:
The play La Finestrina was written in Italy in the eighteenth century.
The director claims that this production is as similar to the original production (18th century production).
Although the actor who plays Harlequin gives a performance very reminiscent of the twentieth-century comedian Groucho Marx, Marx’s comic style had begun in sixteenth-century Italy.
(So basically, Harlequin's performance reminds one of Marx's style but Marx's used a style that had originated in the 16th century. So Harlequin's performance is old style)

Which of the following can we conclude:

(A) modern audiences would fi nd it hard to tolerate certain characteristics of a historically accurate performance of an eighteenth-century play
No such info available. The argument says that it may not be possible to replicate the play exactly but why, we do not know. Is it because of the technology or actors or audience, we cannot say.

(B) Groucho Marx once performed the part of the character Harlequin in La Finestrina
No such info given

(C) in the United States the training of actors in the twentieth century is based on principles that do not differ radically from those that underlay the training of actors in eighteenth-century Italy
The argument only talks about one particular 20th century actor, Marx, not about actors in general. So we cannot say this.

(D) the performance of the actor who plays Harlequin in La Finestrina does not serve as evidence against the director’s claim
The director claims that his production is similar to the original 18th century production. Even though the performance of the guy who plays Harlequin reminds us of Marx, the 20th century comedian, his style was old school. Hence, the guy's style was old school. So his performance is not evidence against the director's claim. True. Hence this is the answer.

(E) the director of La Finestrina must have advised the actor who plays Harlequin to model his performance on comic performances of Groucho Marx
We don't know who told the actor to model his performance on Marx or whether he did it on his own or whether his style is actually similar to Marx's.
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I'm glad the Verbal Bot bumped this question up. It's a fantastic test to see if a test-taker truly gets the logic behind an Inference Question.

In asking: "The considerations given best serve as part of an argument that" we're asked to see which of the 5 options can be inferred with 100% certainty. This is an Inference Question
Goal: Find the option that has to be 100% certain

Here's what we know:
Fact 1) La Finestrina, now at Central Theater, was written in Italy in the eighteenth century
Fact 2) The director claims that this production is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater.
Fact 3) The actor who plays Harlequin the clown gives a performance very reminiscent of the twentieth-century American comedian Groucho Marx
Fact 4) Marx’s comic style was very much within the comic acting tradition that had begun in sixteenth-century Italy

All 4 wrong options can be eliminated because they CAN NOT be confirmed on the basis of the 4 facts:

(A) modern audiences would find it hard to tolerate certain characteristics of a historically accurate performance of an eighteenth-century play
How would we have any clue how modern audiences would react? Can you point to any part of the facts given that would guarantee how modern audiences would feel? No. That's good for us then. The right option has to be 100% supported, so this one is gone.

(B) Groucho Marx once performed the part of the character Harlequin in La Finestrina
The actor who plays Harlequinn is reminiscent of Groucho. Does that mean we can somehow infer that Groucho once played Harlequinn? He could have, but it's totally unsupported by this prompt.

(C) in the United States the training of actors in the twentieth century is based on principles that do not differ radically from those that underlay the training of actors in eighteenth-century Italy
Similarly, the passage in NO WAY equips us to comment on the training of either 20th century US actors or 18th century Italian actors. Not at all supported. Gone.

(E) the director of La Finestrina must have advised the actor who plays Harlequin to model his performance on comic performances of Groucho Marx
Just because the actor who plays Harlequinn is reminiscent of Goucho, 1) does that mean that the actor ACTUALLY modeled his acting after Groucho? Not necessarily. 2) Do we have any clue as to whether the director advised the actor to do so? Not at all. Completely unsupported. Gone.

That brings us to our right option:

(D) the performance of the actor who plays Harlequin in La Finestrina does not serve as evidence against the director’s claim
If someone seeing this question didn't understand that Inference questions ask for the option that must be 100% supported from the information in the prompt, they'd look at this option and be utterly baffled as to why it's the right option. It would seem so random. Here's the story though: do we know for a fact that the performance of the actor who plays Harlequin in La Finestrina does NOT serve as evidence against the director’s claim that "this production is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater"? Yes. The information presented DOESN'T RUN COUNTER to the director's claim, therefore this information does not serve as evidence against the director's claim. 100% true.
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This is a conclusion question. You have to choose an answer which best summarizes all the points. The author says that the actor "Harlequin" who acts in the play "La Finestrina" reminds people of "Groucho Marx" and Marx represented the comic acting tradition of 16th century Italy." D" is the only answer choice which agrees with the above statements. "Does not serve against" translates into serves in favor of the author's claim.
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Theater Critic:The play La Finestrina, now at Central Theater, was written in Italy in the eighteenth century. The director claims that this production is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater. Although the actor who plays Harlequin the clown gives a performance very reminiscent of the twentieth-century American comedian Groucho Marx, Marx’s comic style was very much within the comic acting tradition that had begun in sixteenth-century Italy.

The considerations given best serve as part of an argument that

(A) modern audiences would find it hard to tolerate certain characteristics of a historically accurate performance of an eighteenth-century play
(B) Groucho Marx once performed the part of the character Harlequin in La Finestrina
(C) in the United States the training of actors in the twentieth century is based on principles that do not differ
radically from those that underlay the training of actors in eighteenth-century Italy
(D) the performance of the actor who plays Harlequin in La Finestrina does not serve as evidence against the director’s claim
(E) the director of La Finestrina must have advised the actor who plays Harlequin to model his performance on comic performances of Groucho Marx[/quote]



In asking: "The considerations given best serve as part of an argument that" we're asked to see which of the 5 options can be inferred with 100% certainty. This is an Inference Question

Goal: Find the option that has to be 100% certain

Here's what we know:
Fact 1) La Finestrina, now at Central Theater, was written in Italy in the eighteenth century
Fact 2) The director claims that this production is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater.
Fact 3) The actor who plays Harlequin the clown gives a performance very reminiscent of the twentieth-century American comedian Groucho Marx
Fact 4) Marx’s comic style was very much within the comic acting tradition that had begun in sixteenth-century Italy

All 4 wrong options can be eliminated because they CAN NOT be confirmed on the basis of the 4 facts:

(A) modern audiences would find it hard to tolerate certain characteristics of a historically accurate performance of an eighteenth-century play
How would we have any clue how modern audiences would react? Can you point to any part of the facts given that would guarantee how modern audiences would feel? No. That's good for us then. The right option has to be 100% supported, so this one is gone.

(B) Groucho Marx once performed the part of the character Harlequin in La Finestrina
The actor who plays Harlequinn is reminiscent of Groucho. Does that mean we can somehow infer that Groucho once played Harlequinn? He could have, but it's totally unsupported by this prompt.

(C) in the United States the training of actors in the twentieth century is based on principles that do not differ radically from those that underlay the training of actors in eighteenth-century Italy
Similarly, the passage in NO WAY equips us to comment on the training of either 20th century US actors or 18th century Italian actors. Not at all supported. Gone.

(E) the director of La Finestrina must have advised the actor who plays Harlequin to model his performance on comic performances of Groucho Marx
Just because the actor who plays Harlequinn is reminiscent of Goucho, 1) does that mean that the actor ACTUALLY modeled his acting after Groucho? Not necessarily. 2) Do we have any clue as to whether the director advised the actor to do so? Not at all. Completely unsupported. Gone.

That brings us to our right option:

(D) the performance of the actor who plays Harlequin in La Finestrina does not serve as evidence against the director’s claim
If someone seeing this question didn't understand that Inference questions ask for the option that must be 100% supported from the information in the prompt, they'd look at this option and be utterly baffled as to why it's the right option. It would seem so random. Here's the story though: do we know for a fact that the performance of the actor who plays Harlequin in La Finestrina does NOT serve as evidence against the director’s claim that "this production is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater"? Yes. The information presented DOESN'T RUN COUNTER to the director's claim, therefore this information does not serve as evidence against the director's claim. 100% true.
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I failed because i didnot understand this as an inference question!
Can you please explain how you concluded as an inference question??

Hi,

I'd be happy to help. Your question underscores an important macro point about Question Type Identification: it's not about the typical buzzwords found d in most of the questions, but rather the fundamental assignment we're being asked to perform.

Inference questions require us to take the information in the prompt, and find the option that has to be true on the basis of that support. So here, even though the question is really bizarrely phrased, if we're asked to take the statements in the prompt to find an option that can rest on them, that's an Inference question through and through.
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I'm sorry. I still did not understand completely.
I have come across few question in which question stem ask for "support". I have noticed that support questions sometimes are inference questions and sometime are strengthen questions. Because of this identification error, i get most of the questions wrong.

Hi,

That's actually a pretty common question since both Inference and Strengthen questions can use the word "support", which is why I stressed not going by the words we see, but rather the task we're asked to perform.

Here's the story:

STRENGTHEN:
Which of the following, if true, best supports the reasoning outlined above?

What are we asked to do here?
We need to select an option that makes the argument stronger. One option will make the prompt stronger---the support is going from option to prompt.


INFERENCE:
Which of the following is best supported on the basis of the information outlined above?

What are we asked to do here?
We're taking the information in the prompt, and selecting an option that is supported by the prompt. The prompt provides the strength for one option. The support is going from the prompt to the option.

You might have to re-read the a few times since it is one of the most technical distinctions on the entire Verbal section, but if you look at the task we're asked to perform, you'll see it.
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We can eliminate 4 answer choices here.

A) There's nothing to indicate that modern-day audiences would be intolerant. ELIMINATE

B) There's nothing to indicate that Groucho Marx ever played the role of Harlequin. ELIMINATE

C) There's nothing to indicate this. ELIMINATE

D) We can't eliminate this. All we know is that the actor's performance was like that of Groucho Marx, who performed in a manner similar to comedians in the 16th century. Since it's POSSIBLE that the original production of La Finestrina included a performance of Harlequin that was 16th century-ish, we can't eliminate D.

E) "Must have advised..." There's nothing to indicate this. ELIMINATE

Answer: D

In asking: "The considerations given best serve as part of an argument that" we're asked to see which of the 5 options can be inferred with 100% certainty. This is an Inference Question

Goal: Find the option that has to be 100% certain

Here's what we know:
Fact 1) La Finestrina, now at Central Theater, was written in Italy in the eighteenth century
Fact 2) The director claims that this production is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater.
Fact 3) The actor who plays Harlequin the clown gives a performance very reminiscent of the twentieth-century American comedian Groucho Marx
Fact 4) Marx’s comic style was very much within the comic acting tradition that had begun in sixteenth-century Italy

All 4 wrong options can be eliminated because they CAN NOT be confirmed on the basis of the 4 facts:

(A) modern audiences would find it hard to tolerate certain characteristics of a historically accurate performance of an eighteenth-century play
How would we have any clue how modern audiences would react? Can you point to any part of the facts given that would guarantee how modern audiences would feel? No. That's good for us then. The right option has to be 100% supported, so this one is gone.

(B) Groucho Marx once performed the part of the character Harlequin in La Finestrina
The actor who plays Harlequinn is reminiscent of Groucho. Does that mean we can somehow infer that Groucho once played Harlequinn? He could have, but it's totally unsupported by this prompt.

(C) in the United States the training of actors in the twentieth century is based on principles that do not differ radically from those that underlay the training of actors in eighteenth-century Italy
Similarly, the passage in NO WAY equips us to comment on the training of either 20th century US actors or 18th century Italian actors. Not at all supported. Gone.

(E) the director of La Finestrina must have advised the actor who plays Harlequin to model his performance on comic performances of Groucho Marx
Just because the actor who plays Harlequinn is reminiscent of Goucho, 1) does that mean that the actor ACTUALLY modeled his acting after Groucho? Not necessarily. 2) Do we have any clue as to whether the director advised the actor to do so? Not at all. Completely unsupported. Gone.

That brings us to our right option:

(D) the performance of the actor who plays Harlequin in La Finestrina does not serve as evidence against the director’s claim
If someone seeing this question didn't understand that Inference questions ask for the option that must be 100% supported from the information in the prompt, they'd look at this option and be utterly baffled as to why it's the right option. It would seem so random. Here's the story though: do we know for a fact that the performance of the actor who plays Harlequin in La Finestrina does NOT serve as evidence against the director’s claim that "this production is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater"? Yes. The information presented DOESN'T RUN COUNTER to the director's claim, therefore this information does not serve as evidence against the director's claim. 100% true.[/quote]

this is not an inference question because of "best serve as a part of the argument". Although it is true that both a inference and an assumptio will not be directly expressed in the passage, an inference will never be a part of an argument, but an assumption is.