PrepTest 137, Section 2, Question 24
Why are violins made by Stradivarius in the(57 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(5 more words not shown)
- Asome other Italian(15 more words not shown)
- BStradivarius was the(17 more words not shown)
- Cno violin made(11 more words not shown)
- Dthe special qualities(14 more words not shown)
- EStradivarius did not(8 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
What makes these violins sound so good? The wood might matter, or the craftsmanship, or something about the conditions in which the material developed. Let's see where the evidence points.
The secret-varnish proposal has no evidence behind it here. That doesn't prove it false, but it gives us little reason to choose that explanation. The climate evidence gives us something more concrete: trees in the region produced wood with unusual acoustic properties during the relevant period.
What we’re looking for
That points toward the wood as a contributor to the violins' quality. For the completion question, I'd stay with that explanation. We don't need to claim the wood explains everything or that every other possible contribution has been ruled out.
Working the answers
- A
Other Italian violin makers might have had access to similar wood, but we aren't told what instruments they produced or how good those instruments were. Shared material wouldn't by itself establish equal quality anyway; craftsmanship could also matter. A adds a comparison with other makers that the passage doesn't establish.
- B
Stradivarius doesn't have to be the only person who used the wood for it to help explain his violins' quality. The argument concerns what made his violins special, not who had exclusive access to a resource. We have no information ruling out other makers using it.
- C
We haven't evaluated every present-day material. Modern materials could potentially produce excellent sound even if this historical wood helped make Stradivarius violins exceptional. C turns an explanation of one group's quality into an unsupported limit on everything that can be made now.
- DCorrect
The unusual wood contributes to the special qualities of the violins. That connects the climate finding to the question the passage is trying to answer. ‘Due in part’ is appropriately limited: the wood can help explain the sound without being the only relevant factor. The conclusion remains a likely explanation, not a claim that all other possibilities have been disproved.
- E
Lacking evidence for secret varnishes doesn't establish that Stradivarius used no secret techniques at all. A special method could have worked alongside special wood. E both broadens the claim from varnishes to every technique and treats an unsupported proposal as something disproved.
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