PrepTest 118, Section 1, Question 10
Rachel: Though contemporary artists are pleased to be(80 more words not shown)
On the basis of their(13 more words not shown)
- Acontemporary art is(6 more words not shown)
- Bcontemporary artists are(8 more words not shown)
- Cgreat art is(8 more words not shown)
- Dinferior art from(5 more words not shown)
- Eone can correctly(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Are we comparing today's art with all the art from the past, or just the work that survived because people thought it was great? Rachel thinks art has gotten worse. She blames artists' freedom from the restrictions earlier artists faced: without that struggle, she says, the quality has declined.
James questions the comparison. We remember exceptional artists such as Michelangelo, not every person who made art in the same era. The weaker old works have been forgotten, while today's weaker works are still around. Comparing all that current work with only the memorable old work could make the present look worse even if art hasn't actually declined.
What we’re looking for
So these speakers disagree about whether contemporary art really is worse. Rachel says yes; James says that impression is mistaken. For the disagreement question, keep both speakers' positions attached to that claim. James needn't reject every detail of Rachel's explanation in order to reject her judgment about the quality of art.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Rachel explicitly says the quality of art has declined. James says people mistakenly regard contemporary art as generally inferior because they compare it with the best remembered work from earlier eras. They give opposing answers to whether contemporary art is of lower quality.
- B
Rachel says the constraints have changed, but James never addresses constraints. His explanation concerns which old works people remember. He could agree that artists now have more freedom and still reject Rachel's claim that the quality has declined. We need a disagreement, not one speaker's view plus the other's silence.
- C
Rachel gives this requirement for great art. James doesn't say whether struggling against limitations is necessary. He focuses on the selective survival of older work. We can't infer that he opposes this separate claim merely because he disputes her overall assessment of contemporary art.
- D
James does say inferior older art gets forgotten. Rachel gives no position on that. She might accept that it happens but think contemporary art is still worse even after making a fair comparison. The dialogue doesn't establish opposing views on forgetting.
- E
Neither speaker limits accurate judgments to art from past eras. James's point concerns comparing the overall quality of two eras when one sample has been filtered by time. That doesn't mean people cannot recognize a good or bad contemporary work. E changes a problem with the comparison into a restriction on all judgments of individual art.
More Disagreement questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Disagreement questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.