Those who feel that fewer and fewer people in this country have

Question

Those who feel that fewer and fewer people in this country have a genuine interest in the fine arts are absolutely correct. This is true despite the oft-mentioned record levels of attendance at art museums.

The argument above would be most strengthened if which of the following statements were true?

The argument above would be most strengthened if which of the following statements were true?

A. The increase in the number of people who visit art museums more than once has been greater than the increase in the number of visits to these museums.
B. An interest in the fine arts cannot be determined by examining levels of museum attendance.
C. A substantial and relatively consistent portion of the visitors to this country's art museums are, and always have been, international tourists.
D. Sales of art books have declined sharply.
E. Art museums in this country now display a much wider range of exhibits than was once the case.

yash312 · Answer

IMO A

Conclusion: Those who feel that fewer and fewer people in this country have a genuine interest in the fine arts are absolutely correct. 
Premise:This is true despite the of the-mentioned record levels of attendance at art museums.

Prethink: Even the record levels of attendance at art museums, it is no true representation of the actual increase in members visit to museum.

a) The increase in the number of people who visit art museums more than once has been greater than the increase in the number of visits to these museums.---same as prethink
b) An interest in the fine arts cannot be determined by examining levels of museum attendance.---irrelevant, not affecting conclusion
c) A substantial and relatively consistent portion of the visitors to this country's art museums are, and always have been, international tourists.---irrelevant
d) Sales of art books have declined sharply---irrelelvant
e) Art museums in this country now display a much wider range of exhibits than was once the case. ---irrelevant

rish2708 · Answer

Per me its C.

Option A says: the increase in number of people is greater than number of visits.

But here we do not know whether these people who are visiting are of the same country?

And if they are... How many are they? They might be 80%.

C says the attendance is more and it might be "substantially" due to foreigners.. and this does bolster the claim that interest in "this" country has fallen.

Posted from my mobile device

AshutoshB · Answer

a) The increase in the number of people who visit art museums more than once has been greater than the increase in the number of visits to these museums.  IMHO this wud  the correct answer as it is attributing the increase in attendance to already interested people

b) An interest in the fine arts cannot be determined by examining levels of museum attendance. 
c) A substantial and relatively consistent portion of the visitors to this country's art museums are, and always have been, international tourists.
d) Sales of art books have declined sharply.
e) Art museums in this country now display a much wider range of exhibits than was once the case.

manishcmu · Answer

Those who feel that fewer and fewer people in this country have a genuine interest in the fine arts are absolutely correct. This is true despite the oft-mentioned record levels of attendance at art museums.

The argument above would be most strengthened if which of the following statements were true?

The argument above would be most strengthened if which of the following statements were true?

Conclusion: fewer and fewer people in this country have a genuine interest in the fine arts
No support has been given for this conclusion. But, there is a contradictory fact - oft-mentioned record levels of attendance at art museums.
The right choice will show that despite the contradictory fact, the genuine interest in the fine arts is indeed decreasing. In other words, it will explain the ambiguity.

a) The increase in the number of people who visit art museums more than once has been greater than the increase in the number of visits to these museums.  Just what we want. The record levels of attendance is attributed to re-visits.  
b) An interest in the fine arts cannot be determined by examining levels of museum attendance. Does not show whether the interest in fine arts is decreasing 
c) A substantial and relatively  consistent  portion of the visitors to this country's art museums are, and always have been, international tourists. It does show that fine arts is more popular among foreigners but does not say anything about the  decreasing  interest among people of this country 
d) Sales of art books have declined sharply. We are talking about fine arts and not general art. Also, this does not put any effort on explaining record levels of attendance at art museum 
e) Art museums in this country now display a much wider range of exhibits than was once the case. Has nothing to do with public interest.

akshata19 · Answer

Though I fell in trap and chose C

But this my take on the analysis

c) A substantial and relatively consistent portion of the visitors to this country's art museums  are, and always have been , international tourists.

So nothing has changed , international people visiting remains consistent 
so does not explain decrease in interest vs visit number increase

a) The increase in the number of people who visit art museums more than once has been greater than the increase in the number of visits to these museums.
so yes as someone rightly mentioned 
it explains the paradox in the argument 
 interest of people decreasing but if interested people visit more than once , the count of visitors increase

TheNightKing · Answer

Between A and C, I agree with the fact that A strengthens more about the people within the country not being interested in art. But that does not mean C is not doing the same part. sIf most of the people who visits museums in my country are not local people but are international tourist that means we really don't care about art ? One can argue that it can also mean we as local people have been to such famous places and not don't keep visiting again. So I guess A and C both do their job but A impacts directly to the argument. More of a debatable OA to me.

Thank you!

vp20 · Answer

IMO, C is incorrect because:

(C) A substantial and relatively consistent portion of art museum visitors are, and always have been, international tourists.

Only if the total number of visitors decreases would domestic visitors decrease, given that the proportion of international tourists is relatively consistent.

The option states a substantial 'portion,' and not the absolute number (of international tourists).

For example, in Year 1 if there are 100 visitors with 75% international (25 domestic), but in Year 2 there are 500 visitors with the same 75% international, there would be an increase in domestic visitors.

sagregas · Answer

Sometimes I feel people see the correct answer and prove it to be right by any means whatsoever.. more like reverse engineering.. but we don't know the answers beforehand in a test.. this question is definitely debatable imho

guddo · Answer

Those who feel that fewer and fewer people in this country have a genuine interest in the fine arts are absolutely correct. This is true despite the oft-mentioned record levels of attendance at art museums.

The argument above would be most strengthened if which of the following statements were true?

The argument above would be most strengthened if which of the following statements were true?

The argument says two things:

1. genuine interest in fine arts is declining
2. high museum attendance does not prove otherwise

So the best support must show that  record attendance can rise even without a broad increase in genuine interest .

(A) The increase in the number of people who visit art museums more than once has been greater than the increase in the number of visits to these museums.

This is the correct answer. If repeat visitors are increasing strongly, then total attendance can go up even without a larger number of genuinely interested people. In other words, museum visits may be rising because the same smaller group is going more often, not because more people in the country care about fine arts. That supports the claim that genuine interest is declining despite record attendance.

(B) An interest in the fine arts cannot be determined by examining levels of museum attendance.

This helps a little, but it is too general. It only says attendance is not a reliable measure. It does not explain how attendance could be rising while genuine interest is falling. A does.

(C) A substantial and relatively consistent portion of the visitors to this country's art museums are, and always have been, international tourists.

This is not correct, and here is the key reason. The word  consistent  hurts this choice badly. It means that tourists made up a large share before, and they still make up a large share now, at roughly the same level. So this fact does not explain the recent record attendance. If the tourist portion has stayed about the same, then museum attendance could still be rising because more people in this country are interested. So C does not strongly support the conclusion.

To make C useful, it would need to say something like this:
the recent increase in attendance is mostly due to foreign tourists.

But it does not say that. It says the tourist share is substantial and relatively consistent. That does not help enough.

(D) Sales of art books have declined sharply.

This does support the idea that interest in fine arts may be falling. But it does not deal directly with the problem created by the museum-attendance evidence. A is better because it directly explains why museum attendance can be misleading.

(E) Art museums in this country now display a much wider range of exhibits than was once the case.

This does not strengthen the argument. If anything, it could explain higher attendance without saying anything about declining interest in fine arts specifically.

Answer: (A)

Those who feel that fewer and fewer people in this country have

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Those who feel that fewer and fewer people in this country have

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