#13 - It is due to a misunderstanding that most modern

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

Assumption. The correct answer choice is (B)

The conclusion of this stimulus is that most modern sculpture is monochromatic based on an initial misunderstanding that monochromatic ancient sculpture whose colors had likely faded. This clearly presumes some connection between modern and ancient sculpture, which will likely be reflected by the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (A): The stimulus does not involve materials used, so this is irrelevant and this answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. This is the response which supplies the link prephrased above. The author must presume that ancient sculpture somehow influences modern sculpture—otherwise the argument would make no sense.

Answer choice (C): No such comparison is made, and this assumption would have no effect on the author's conclusion, so this answer choice is incorrect.

Answer choice (D): Paintings of sculptures would play no role in the stimulus' argument, so this answer choice is irrelevant and incorrect.

Answer choice (E): There is no speculation by the author regarding future trends, so this cannot be an assumption on which the argument relies.

[adlindsey]

I had a hard time understanding this stimulus due to the incoherent and tortuous language used in the 1st sentence. Why do the authors use sculpture in the singular tense? This doesn't sound right, nor does it make any sense, since they are referring to it in the plural form. It's bad writing and throws me off. It's hard enough to comprehend the first sentence with this and the placement of it in the stimulus. Also, I thought I wasn't required to know the meaning of unusual terminology? Monochromatic is unusual terminology and I didn't know the definition of it. I don't know how I'm supposed to use everything I'm learning when I can't even decipher incoherent language like this. And I'm not a weak reader by any means.

[Adam Tyson]

Vocabulary challenges abound on the LSAT, adlindsey, and they can be a source of major frustration. That can happen anywhere on the test, especially in LR stimuli with hard science concepts that they don't have time/space to explain the way they can in RC. I just an awful one about nucleomorphs and endosymbiosis that made my head spin. Sometimes, the only thing to do is guess and move on, if you truly are stumped.

First, though, you should do everything you can to use context clues and parts of speech to decipher meaning. In this case, the prefix mono - that means one, right? Monotone means one sound, monologue is a speech by one person, monogamy is a relationship with just one other person, etc. One definition of chromatic refers to color - that one may be less familiar to you, but the context is talking about color (uncolored ancient sculptures). That context should help you get the idea that monochrome or monochromatic means one color. Also, picture an ancient sculpture, and what do you think of? The Thinker, or David, or any of those Greek or Roman gods, perhaps? They are all plain white or grayish, right? Visualization might have helped here, too. However you get there, don't let tough vocabulary throw a wrench in your process - find a way to logically reason it out if you can. If you can't, then let it go and move on - it's just one question and not worth the frustration.

As to that use of "sculpture", it's not technically being used in the plural sense (which would be sculptures), but in the non-counted sense - not singular or plural, but describing a class of objects to which we assign no number value. That's like talking about "American film" or "space travel" - we aren't necessarily talking about one film or one trip in space, but about the category as a whole. That's the way sculpture is being used here - we aren't talking about a single sculpture, nor are we talking about a number of sculptures, but rather about sculpture as a class of things, a category.

Sorry this one caused you so much hardship! If we can lay our hands on the jerk that wrote this question, we'll reach out to you and arrange a chance for you to give him a piece of your mind. In the meantime, do everything you can to maintain a positive attitude and never let any one question, or game, or passage, ruin your test for you.

Good luck - you can do it!

[adlindsey]

Yes, after reading the stimulus about 10 times, I was able to assume chromatic, more than likely, referred to color. And of course mono refers to one. As for sculpture, they start out with the original word, but then change to sculptures when referring to ancient ones. I have a hard time guessing and skipping questions. If it would be just one question, I wouldn't have a problem doing that.

If ya'll can get ya'lls hands on this jerk, that would be great! All of us test-takers, with writing skills, can speak our minds to them! Thanks for the encouragement.

[student987]

Hello! I understand how to solve this, but I am a bit confused as to why this question is not causal-Assumption. I thought it would be classified as 'causal' because of the word 'due to' (Cause: misunderstanding; Effect: modern sculpture is monochromatic). I would appreciate any help!

Thanks.

[Jon Denning]

Hi student987 - thanks for the message! Turns out I agree with you on this one: while it isn't as explicitly causal as the typical Assumption questions where we'd assign that label (ones where the assumption is the denial of an alt cause, say), I think it is causal enough to warrant the tag.

So I've updated our scoring system to reflect that, and alerted our publications department to make the necessary adjustments to answer keys and the like in future printings of our books!

Thanks again for pointing that out!

Jon

[g_lawyered]

Hi,
I was so close to getting this question correct as I narrowed it down to B & C. But of course ending up choosing C. As the previous student posted, I too saw causality language so I had 2 prephrases for the assumption.

Prephrase 1: The moisture (cause) caused the discoloration (effect)
Prephrase 2: There was a new element in the conclusion between modern and ancient sculptures. So the author must be treating those different kinds of sculptures the same to come to that conclusion.

Why can't answer choice C be correct since it points out a difference in moisture between the 2 sculptures? Doesn't C in a way point out what the author was assuming when reached the conclusion?

Also, why is answer choice b correct? Why does the influence of 1 type of sculpture affect the other? I didn't think it was something necessary which is why I eliminated it and picked C. Can someone please clarify where my thought process is wrong.

Thanks in advance,
Gabriela

[Robert Carroll]

Gabriela,

The author is not trying to say that modern sculpture is monochromatic because of moisture damage, or any other damage. Instead, the author is trying to say that modern sculpture is monochromatic by design - people are trying to emulate the aesthetic qualities of ancient sculpture, which has only survived to us in monochromatic form. But the author points out that surviving examples of ancient sculpture are not monochromatic by design, but instead because moisture has washed away the paint. So, in trying to emulate what ancient sculpture looks like now, modern sculpture is not copying the original designs of ancient sculpture very well.

We can think of an analogous case. Imagine an architect who wants to pull off a "classical" aesthetic, and designs a building with a collapsed roof, because the example he's trying to emulate is an ancient ruin. Well, he's not copying the design of the original building! The original building wasn't a ruin. So designing a building to look like a ruin looks now isn't emulating the original design. Similarly in our situation, making sculptures monochromatic because archaeological remains are monochromatic is making sculptures look differently than they originally looked.

We really don't have any concern how ancient sculptures got monochromatic. The conclusion is only that people making modern sculpture monochromatic are engaging in some misunderstanding. As I said, that misunderstanding is that ancient sculpture was designed to be monochromatic rather than merely ending up so because of the ravages of time. If modern sculpture isn't even trying to emulate ancient sculpture, then the author's argument fails, which is why answer choice (B) is correct.

Robert Carroll