#12 - The best jazz singers use their voices much as horn

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Method of Reasoning—AP. The correct answer choice is (C)

Your task in this Method of Reasoning question is to select the answer that best describes the role in
the argument played by the claim that the best jazz singers use their voices much as horn players use
their instruments. The argument, reordered for clarity, is

Premise: the great Billie Holiday thought of her singing voice as a horn, reshaping
melody and words to increase their impact

Sub-Conclusion: thus, the best jazz singers use their voices much as horn players use
their instruments

Premise: conversely, jazz horn players achieve their distinctive sounds by emulating the
spontaneous twists and turns of an impassioned voice

Conclusion: so, jazz consists largely of voicelike horns and hornlike voices

Your prephase is that the argument part identified in the question stem is a subsidiary or intermediate
conclusion in the argument, supported by one premise and also providing support for the main
conclusion. It can be difficult at times with arguments containing a subsidiary conclusion to identify
which conclusion is the main conclusion and which is the subsidiary.

If you have trouble deciding which statement plays which role, use the Conclusion Identification
Method, meaning that you take the statements and place them in an arrangement that forces one to
be the conclusion and the other(s) to be the premise(s). Use premise and conclusion indicators to do
this. Once you have arranged the pieces, determine which order makes logical sense.

The incorrect answers will ascribe a different argumentative role to the claim identified in the
conclusion. For example, it may describe the role as the main point or a premise.

Answer choice (A): While the statement was a conclusion, it was a subsidiary conclusion. It is
supported by the fact about Bilie Holiday, but it also supports the conclusion that jazz consists
largely of voicelike horns and hornlike voices.

Answer choice (B): This choice is inconsistent with the passage, which contained two conclusions.

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice. As described regarding choice (A) above,
the statement was a subsidiary conclusion.

Answer choice (D): The statement was supported by the evidence regarding Billie Holiday, and it is
not accurate to say the argument contained only one conclusion.

Answer choice (E): This choice describes the statement as premise. However, since it was supported
by a premise and also supported the main conclusion, it was an intermediate conclusion.

[rneuman123@gmail.com]

I chose a for this answer. I got confused about whether the 1st or last sentence was the main conclusion. How can u tell which one is?

[Nikki Siclunov]

Hi rneuman123@gmail.com,

The key to distinguishing subsidiary from main conclusions is to ask yourself which claim supports, or explains, the other claim. Use the Conclusion Identification Method: assume that one of the claims is the conclusion and the other - a premise, and check to see if the arrangement makes sense. Then reverse the other and see if that makes more sense. Let's look at this problem. Which of the following two structural arrangements makes more sense:

Arrangement 1

Claim (1): The best jazz singers use their voices much as horn players use their instruments.

Therefore:

Claim (2): Jazz consists largely of voicelike horns and hornlike voices.

Arrangement 2

Claim (2): Jazz consists largely of voicelike horns and hornlike voices.

Therefore:

Claim (1): The best jazz singers use their voices much as horn players use their instruments.

Clearly, Arrangement 2 does not make much sense: Claim 2 does not explain, or support, Claim 1. By contrast, Arrangement 1 makes a lot more sense, because the way in which jazz singers use their voices explains why jazz consists of hornlike voices. The first sentence supports, or explains, the last sentence, making it a premise to the conclusion in the last sentence. And, since the first sentence was also supported by the observations made in the middle of the stimulus, that sentence functions as an intermediate, or a subsidiary, conclusion in the argument.

Here's the logical structure in a nutshell:

• Premise: Billie Holiday thought of her singing voice as a horn.
  Premise: Jazz horn players achieve their sounds by emulating an impassioned voice.
  Sub. Conclusion: The best jazz singers use their voices much as horn players use their instruments.
  Conclusion: Jazz consists largely of voicelike horns and hornlike voices.

Hope this approach makes sense!

Thanks,

[lunsandy]

Hi Powerscore,

I have a question on eliminated answer choices that are similar to this in the future. I was thinking would D never be possible (excluding the part about argument's only conclusion) since in order for a statement to be a sub-conclusion it has to supported by a premise in order for it be a SC. Thus, D can never happen?

Thanks a lot!

[Claire Horan]

Hi Lunsandy,

I may be misunderstanding your question, but (D) could certainly be the answer, given a different stimulus but the same question stem given.

Here's a different stimulus, which I made by removing the premise about Billie Holiday:

The best jazz singers use their voices much as horn players use their instruments. Conversely, jazz horn players achieve their distinctive sounds by emulating the spontaneous twists and turns of an impassioned voice. So jazz consists largely of voicelike horns and hornlike voices.

For this stimulus, the statement that "the best jazz singers use their voices much as horn players use their instruments"
is "a statement for which no evidence is provided but which itself is used to support the argument’s only conclusion" (D).

If you take out the part about supporting the argument's only conclusion, you get "a statement for which no evidence is provided," which is just a premise.

Let us know if you meant to ask something else!

[tetsuya0129]

Regarding "large" or "largely", I wanna know to what extent it suggests about the scope of the sentence: some, most, or something else.

I deeply appreciate your help and time for my question.

Leon

[Robert Carroll]

Leon,

"Largely" should be equivalent to "most". If half or fewer of jazz musicians did what the stimulus says, it wouldn't make sense to describe jazz as "largely" involving those elements. So I think "largely" requires a majority, at least, of a group to have the given quality.

Robert Carroll

[tetsuya0129]

Thanks, Carroll. Your reply cleared my confusion. I now understood that "largely" has a meaning of "mostly" while "large" does not have a definition of "most".