Q24 - Why are violins made by Stradivarius

by **ohthatpatrick** Fri Dec 31, 1999 8:00 pm

Question Type:
Logical Completion (draw a Conclusion … "Therefore, ____"

Stimulus Breakdown:
People are trying to figure out why S's violins are so much better than other violins. Apparently, there were special weather patterns when S was making violins that gave wood special acoustic properties. So …

Answer Anticipation:
So … the special sauce in S's violins is probably the unique wood from this time period / region.

(Beware strong claims / speculative overstatements)

Correct Answer:
D

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) This goes against the grain. S's violins are supposed to be special. It's possible that his contemporaries had access to the same wood and made violins with that wood as well, but we can't support that the author thinks it's LIKELY that other violin makers EQUALED the quality of S's dope violins.

(B) "Only"? This is too harsh. This is basically the inverse of (A). It's hard to draw any solid conclusions about how much this special wood did / didn't get used by people other than S.

(C) "No"? Too extreme. The facts allow for SOME violins to be as good as S's violins.

(D) YES, this is where this author seemed to be heading.

(E) "Any"? Too extreme. (D) makes a more conservative judgment. The awesomeness of S's violins is "due IN PART" to the wood. This answer makes a more extreme judgment: the awesomeness is due ONLY to the wood.

Takeaway/Pattern: When we're doing a Logical Completion in which the blank would be the conclusion, we need to pull the strands of the discussion together if a safe, moderate tone.

#officialexplanation