PrepTest 117, Section 4, Question 13
Whether a machine performs its intended function is(38 more words not shown)
The reasoning above conforms most(8 more words not shown)
- APeople who have(26 more words not shown)
- BThe value of(20 more words not shown)
- CEvaluation of the(20 more words not shown)
- DPeople who create(27 more words not shown)
- ESomeone who creates(21 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
I can tell whether a phone makes a call without understanding all the code inside it. That helps make sense of the first premise: checking whether a machine performs its intended job can be easier than understanding how it works. The author contrasts that with recognizing excellence in art, which supposedly takes unusually subtle perception. Let's accept the contrast. Why should it determine how nervous the creators become?
An artist might worry that an evaluator won't recognize good work. An engineer might feel reassured that a working machine speaks for itself. That would connect the ease of judging the work with the creator's anxiety. But the connection isn't stated in the premises; it is what the move to the conclusion relies on.
What we’re looking for
The question asks for the general proposition that best fits this reasoning. I'd look for a rule linking those two ideas: when the success of your work is easier to judge, you worry less about other people's evaluations. Keep the comparison between the two kinds of creators in view.
Working the answers
- A
This concerns people interested in becoming artists or engineers, rather than the creators whose work is being evaluated. More importantly, an assertion about their underlying personalities doesn't state the connection the argument makes between the ease of evaluation and anxiety during evaluation. Similar personalities could still react differently in different circumstances.
- B
Whether the creator's feelings affect the work's value is a different relationship. The argument moves from how easily others can recognize the work's success to how the creator feels about being judged. It doesn't say that the artist's anxiety determines the value of the artwork.
- C
The author describes a difference in how the work can be evaluated. C recommends different standards for evaluating it. We aren't told what standards should be adopted, and that recommendation wouldn't explain the difference in the creators' composure.
- DCorrect
Translate 'easily ascertained' as 'easy to figure out.' Engineers create things whose success is easy to figure out, and they worry less about others' opinions. Artists create things whose value is harder to figure out, and they worry more. D supplies the general relationship illustrated by those two groups.
- E
This compares a creator's confidence with the evaluator's confidence. The argument compares artists with engineers. An artist could be entirely confident that the work is excellent but worry that the evaluator won't appreciate it. Anxiety about someone else's judgment doesn't establish less confidence in the work's value than that person has.
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