Those who support the continued reading and performance of Shakespeare

Question

Those who support the continued reading and performance of Shakespeare’s plays maintain that in England appreciation for his work has always extended beyond educated elites and that ever since Shakespeare’s own time his plays have always been known and loved by comparatively uneducated people. Skepticism about this claim is borne out by examining early eighteen-century editions of the plays. These books, with their fine paper and good bindings, must have been far beyond the reach of people of ordinary means.

Which one of the following describes a reasoning error in the argument?

(A) The argument uses the popularity of Shakespeare’s plays as a measure of their literary quality.

(B) The argument bases an aesthetic conclusion about Shakespeare’s plays on purely economic evidence.

(C) The argument anachronistically uses the standards of the twentieth century to judge events that occurred in the early eighteenth century.

(D) The argument judges the literary quality of a book’s text on the basis of the quality of the volume in which the text is printed.

(E) The argument does not allow for the possibility that people might know Shakespeare’s plays without having read them.

Bunuel · Answer

Same stem Conclusion question: https://gmatclub.com/forum/those-who-su ... 06599.html

suchithra · Answer

E

Premise : All people, educated or uneducated, appreciate Shakespeare's works since his time. 
Author's Conclusion : Ordinary people from his time would not have been able to reach the Shakespeare's works to appreciate it.

Answer should identify the Flaw in the author's argument.

A) The argument uses the popularity of Shakespeare’s plays as a measure of their literary quality.
Literary Quality is out of scope.

(B) The argument bases an aesthetic conclusion about Shakespeare’s plays on purely economic evidence. 
There is no facts presented about the economic abilities of the ordinary people.

(C) The argument anachronistically uses the standards of the twentieth century to judge events that occurred in the early eighteenth century. Standards of 20th century is beyond the scope.

(D) The argument judges the literary quality of a book’s text on the basis of the quality of the volume in which the text is printed. 
No mention of quality of book

(E) The argument does not allow for the possibility that people might know Shakespeare’s plays without having read them. 
Correct

Rickooreo · Answer

Powerscore official answer

In this stimulus the author concludes that many people are incorrect in their claim that Shakespeare's plays have always been known and loved by relatively uneducated people. Her evidence that supports this conclusion is the fine paper and good bindings of the early 18th century versions of these plays. Obviously, the relatively educated may not have been able to buy the books, but that does not in any way demonstrate that they did not know or love them. Again, once you have discovered the flaw in this stimulus, you must find the answer choice that accurately reflects this flaw.

Answer choice (A) There is no argument about the literary quality of Shakespeare's plays in the stimulus; therefore it cannot be an important element in the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (B) Again, there is no argument about aesthetics in the stimulus, so this element will not be present in the correct answer choice. Remember to which family Flaw in the Reasoning questions belong, and remember that the arrow moves from stimulus to answers.

Answer choice (C) This answer may tempt some test takers. You may reason in your mind that we determine the popularity of 20th century authors by the sale of their books, so this answer choice seems to make sense. However, that is an assumption you cannot make because nothing in the stimulus mentions the 20th century or its methods of judging popularity.

Answer choice (D) Like the first two answer choices, this choice mentions an element not present in the stimulus: literary quality. Perhaps this would be an example of faulty reasoning, but it does not apply to this stimulus.

Answer choice (E): This is the correct answer choice, and it demonstrates the importance of reading all of the answer choices and sorting them into contenders and losers before choosing an answer. A test taker who is tempted to answer (C) will probably get to answer choice (E) and realize that it is a better answer.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Those who support the continued reading and performance of Shakespeare

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