PrepTest 157, Section 2, Question 2
The sculptor Barajas died before she could even(45 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(6 more words not shown)
- AOrdinarily, Barajas's ideas(14 more words not shown)
- BOne of the(15 more words not shown)
- CSonora is composed(18 more words not shown)
- DBarajas always worked(7 more words not shown)
- EBarajas never took(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Were those three sketches the finished plan—or just the beginning?
The assistants had something to work from. That makes their version more promising than a statue they invented without any guidance from Barajas. But artists can change their minds. Perhaps Barajas would have drawn dozens more sketches, changing the shape or arrangement as she went. Following her first ideas wouldn't necessarily reproduce the statue she ultimately would have made.
There's another concern: could the assistants execute the design as she would have? Maybe Barajas had skills that her assistants hadn't developed. Even a settled plan might produce a different result in different hands.
What we’re looking for
We're asked to weaken the claim that Sonora probably looks much as it would have if Barajas had finished it herself. Either concern could help: show that the sketches weren't her final design, or show that the assistants couldn't reproduce her work. We need evidence for one of those concerns, not merely a difference between her process and theirs.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Barajas ordinarily made substantial revisions across dozens of preliminary sketches. That makes three early sketches a shaky basis for predicting her finished statue. If her usual process involved many more drawings and major changes, the assistants may have preserved an early idea that she would have transformed. This directly supports our first objection. It doesn't prove exactly what her final version would have looked like; it makes the claimed resemblance less likely.
- B
One assistant's absence doesn't tell us that the result changed. Perhaps the remaining assistants understood the sketches just as well, or the missing assistant had contributed everything needed during planning. We'd need some connection between that person's absence and the statue's appearance. B doesn't supply it.
- C
Maybe Barajas intended to experiment with different materials for this statue. Materials she didn't frequently use aren't materials she would refuse to use. Her earlier habits therefore don't establish that the assistants departed from what she wanted for Sonora.
- D
This fits the argument's account of her process: she used sketches, and the assistants used her sketches. It doesn't tell us that these particular three drawings were final or that the assistants could execute them just as she would. Most importantly, it gives us no new reason to doubt the claimed resemblance.
- E
Taking longer doesn't mean producing a different-looking statue. You might be tempted to treat the extra time as evidence that the assistants were less skilled, but that's an extra assumption. They could have worked more slowly and carefully to produce the same result. A gives us direct evidence that three sketches were likely an incomplete guide; E gives us a timing difference whose effect on appearance remains unknown.
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