LSAT and Law School Admissions Forum

Get expert LSAT preparation and law school admissions advice from PowerScore Test Preparation.

 Administrator
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 8919
  • Joined: Feb 02, 2011
|
#34868
Complete Question Explanation

Main Point. The correct answer choice is (B)

The author introduces a famous artist’s claim that all great art imitates nature:
  • Great art ..... :arrow: ..... Imitate nature
According to the author, the logical implication of this claim is that any music that is great art would also imitate nature:
  • Great artmusic ..... :arrow: ..... Imitate naturemusic
As a counterpremise (“But…”), the author observes that most great music imitates nothing at all, i.e. it does not imitate nature. By the contrapositive of the implication described above, we can conclude that most great music is not great art—assuming, of course, that the famous artist’s claim is correct. It need not be: the artist’s claim is presented as an opinion, whereas the claims in the second and the third sentences are presented as fact. Like all opinions on the test, the artist’s assertion should be approached with caution. If it were correct, then most great music is indeed not great art. But if it were incorrect, then great music can still be great art even if it imitates nothing. This prephrase is consistent with answer choice (B).

Your ability to quickly identify the correct answer to a Main Point question is directly tied to your understanding of the structure of the argument. Since the correct answer is often simply a paraphrase of the conclusion, test makers often introduce competing viewpoints and counterarguments in order to increase the level of difficulty of the question. In this particular question, the author’s conclusion is implied but not explicitly stated. It was imperative to prephrase the main point before examining the answer choices, making a clear distinction between the author’s position and that of the artist.

Answer choice (A): This answer choice is incorrect because the author never argued that music is inferior to other forms of art. The only logical implication of the artist’s claim is that most great music is not great art, not that all music is inferior to all other art forms. Furthermore, this answer choice does not acknowledge the possibility that the artist’s claim is incorrect.

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice. Either the artist’s claim is incorrect, and great music need not imitate anything to be considered great art, or his claim is correct—in which case most great music is not great art.

Answer choice (C): The author never compares music to other art forms such as painting or sculpture. This answer choice falls entirely outside the scope of the argument.

Answer choice (D): Whether great art can represent all elements of nature cannot be determined with the information provided in the stimulus.

Answer choice (E): This is an attractive answer choice because it can easily be concluded by the contrapositive of the artist’s claim. Indeed, if all great art imitates nature, then sounds that do not imitate nature cannot be great music. The question stem, however, never asked us to identify the artist’s hypothetical conclusion given the facts presented by the author. Instead, our goal is to express the author’s main point, who does not necessarily agree with the artist (note the conditional qualifier “if this claim is correct…” at the beginning of the second sentence).
 Khodi7531
  • Posts: 116
  • Joined: Mar 14, 2018
|
#45026
I get why the answer is B, and I think I missed "a famous artist once claims" and just glanced over it not realizing it's significance. This is a strange question and circled C under time, but I disagree with the reason to get rid of C. The great paintings and sculpture may be out of scope but those are general things that could be considered "great art".


I guess that might be something that could be inferred...since it says "LIKE some great music..." but they're asking for a conclusion and because of that it has nothing to do with sculptures. Is that the trick behind C? To get un-careful readers like myself to glance over that?
 Emily Haney-Caron
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 577
  • Joined: Jan 12, 2012
|
#45039
Hi Khodi,

Something that is completely out of scope absolutely cannot be the main point. C definitely is there to trip up people who are rushing and don't take the time to look back up to the stimulus, but it is wrong for the reason given in the Complete Question Explanation, above. Does that make sense?
 sicm91
  • Posts: 12
  • Joined: Mar 23, 2021
|
#86998
Hey! I am having trouble seeing why D is incorrect. Doesn't the speaker argue that some great art cannot imitate nature, which is what the answer choice says? Thanks!
User avatar
 Ryan Twomey
PowerScore Staff
  • PowerScore Staff
  • Posts: 141
  • Joined: Mar 04, 2021
|
#87017
Hey Sicm91,

You said: "I am having trouble seeing why D is incorrect. Doesn't the speaker argue that some great art cannot imitate nature, which is what the answer choice says?"

Answer choice D actually says: "some elements of great art cannot be adequately represented by nature"

These are not the same thing.

We were looking for a prephrase that said not all great art imitates nature, also known as the famous artists statement is incorrect, which is what answer choice B gives us with an added caveat that does not make it wrong.

I hope this helps, and I wish you all of the luck in your studies.

Best,
Ryan

Get the most out of your LSAT Prep Plus subscription.

Analyze and track your performance with our Testing and Analytics Package.