Self-study
The Board of Trustees of the Federici Art Museum has decided to sell some works from its collection in order to raise the funds necessary to refurbish its galleries. ████████ ████ ███ ████ ████ █ ███████ ███████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ██████████ ████ █████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ████ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ███████ ████████████ ████████ █████ ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ████ ██████ ██ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ██ ████████ ███████ ███ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██████ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ███████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that the board’s decision to sell some works will not detract from the quality of the museum’s collection. Why not? Because the collection includes some unsuccessful early works of great artists, which the curator thinks should be sold. The curator thinks that those works are of low quality and don't improve the quality of the collection.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the curator is correct about the quality of the works and how they contribute to the museum’s overall quality. This means that the author is taking the curator as an authority on the issues, and adopting the curator's assumption that works of inferior quality can’t contribute to the overall quality of a museum.
10.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████
a
The directors of ██ ███ ██████ ███ █████████ █████ █████ ███ ████████████ ███ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ █████ █████ ████ ███████ ████ ██ ███ ███████████
Whether or not the art museum could’ve raised funds some other way is irrelevant. Other fundraising methods don't weaken the argument that selling these paintings won't harm the quality of the collection.
b
The quality of ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ███ ██ ████ ███ ██████████ ████████████ █████ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ███ █████ ██ ███ ███████ ████████████
The immature works represent early stages in these artists' development. So keeping the works would help to demonstrate the artists' development, thus increasing the quality of the collection—which undermines the argument.
c
The immature works ██ ██████ ███ ████████ ████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ███████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ██ ███████████ ████████ ██████
It doesn’t matter what critics thought at the time these paintings were purchased. We need to know whether or not they currently add anything to the collection's quality. This doesn't help with that.
d
Those people who █████████ ██ ███ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███ ███████
Some people like art inflation, others don't—and all of that is irrelevant to the argument. We're concerned with the quality of the collection, not the state of the market.
e
The best work ██ █ █████ ██████ ███████ ████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ ███ ██████ ████ ███ █████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ███████
We don’t care how much money the gallery will get for these works. We need to know if their sale would harm the quality of the collection. The price is irrelevant.