PrepTest 137, Section 3, Question 24
Music critic: How well an underground rock group's(64 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(11 more words not shown)
- AIf an underground(18 more words not shown)
- BAn underground rock(26 more words not shown)
- CWhether an underground(18 more words not shown)
- DAn underground rock(20 more words not shown)
- EFor an underground(17 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Poor sales could mean the music is too far outside the mainstream. They could also mean the band isn't very good.
That's why ‘Nobody buys our recordings’ isn't automatically a badge of underground success. The critic also questions the other end of the scale: a popular recording might sell because some of its music is too trendy to count as authentically underground. Neither possible explanation tells us that every popular band fails or every unpopular band succeeds.
What we’re looking for
The argument sounds fairly persuasive, but the question asks for a principle that helps justify it. I wouldn't force an exact prediction here. Keep the target in view as we read: why don't sales settle success as an underground group? A useful rule should connect the concerns the critic raises—trendiness and incompetence—to that particular kind of success.
Working the answers
- A
This makes a middle range of sales a requirement for success. Under that rule, extremely good or bad sales would actually tell us the group isn't successful. That doesn't explain the critic's position that sales aren't a reliable mark of underground success. It also doesn't connect the two stated problems to failure as directly as B does.
- BCorrect
Either incompetence or music too trendy to be authentically underground makes the group unsuccessful. Now both explanations the critic raises matter to the conclusion. Strong sales might come from disqualifying trendiness, while weak sales might come from disqualifying incompetence.
So we can't treat strong sales as proof of underground success, or treat weak sales as proof of authentic underground success. B supplies the missing connection from the possible explanations for sales to failure by the relevant standard. It doesn't turn either possibility into a claim about every recording with that sales level.
- C
This broadly dismisses musicians' preferred criteria as marks of success. Since some musicians prefer low sales, it bears on that side of the discussion. But it doesn't explain why the two specific possibilities the critic identifies—trendiness and incompetence—count against success. B directly connects both parts of the evidence to the conclusion.
- D
This tells us when a competent group with weak sales is successful. It doesn't establish that incompetence rules out success or that excessive trendiness does. Those are the connections the critic needs to explain why both strong and weak sales can be misleading. D addresses one combination of circumstances instead.
- E
Saying competence and authentic music aren't themselves marks of success doesn't tell us why incompetence or overly trendy music defeats success. Those are different claims. The argument needs a connection between its stated concerns and failure, which B supplies; E withholds conclusions about favorable qualities.
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