Q13 - When a machine performs

[tommywallach]

The argument concludes that engineers don’t get nervous when their work is being evaluated, but artists do. Why? Because it’s obvious when a machine works, but recognizing when art works requires perception.

The argument assumes that creators (artists/engineers) are more nervous about being evaluated when that evaluation is more subjective/harder to do. That's answer choice (D).

Incorrect Answers

(A) is out of scope. This isn’t about what artists or engineers are inherently like, but what causes them to get nervous.
(B) is also out of scope. The stimulus says nothing about the value of a given machine or work of art.
(C) might look tempting, but the argument never says evaluating the work of artists should be based on a different set of standards as evaluating the work of engineers. It merely says that recognizing excellence in the two media requires different skills.
(E) is out of scope. We know nothing about what the evaluators think about the value of the work in question. Also, the artists aren’t necessarily less confident of its value. They might be anxious because they aren’t sure the evaluator will see the value.