Self-study
Support Parents who wish to provide a strong foundation for the musical ability of their children should provide them with a good musical education. █████ ██████ ███████████ ██ █████ █ ████ ██ █ ████ ███████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ ██████████ ████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ████████ ███████ ██████ ████████████
Summarize Argument
The author comes to the conclusion that parents wishing to provide a strong foundation for their children’s musical ability must give their children formal instruction. This is because a strong foundation in music requires a good musical education. Further, a good musical education often includes formal instruction.
Identify and Describe Flaw
The author claims that formal instruction is always a necessary condition for a strong musical foundation, just because formal instruction is sometimes part of a necessary condition for a strong musical foundation. This fails to consider that it might be possible to provide a good musical education without formal instruction.
17.
The reasoning is most vulnerable ██ █████████ ██ ███ ███████ ████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ████
a
parents might not ██ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █ ███████ ███████ █████████
The domain of the argument is limited to parents who want to provide their children with a strong musical foundation, so it’s not relevant whether musical education might come from elsewhere—then it wouldn’t be the parents providing it.
b
some children might ███ ██ ██████████ ██ █████████ █ ██████ ██████████ ███ █████ ███████ ███████
This argument is only about parents who want to provide their children with a strong musical foundation. What the children want doesn’t change the steps a parent would need to take to achieve that goal.
c
there are many ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ██████ ███████████ █████ ███████ ███████ ██ ████
The author’s conclusion is that formal instruction is a necessary condition for a strong foundation for musical ability. Whether or not formal instruction is a sufficient condition is irrelevant.
d
formal instruction might ███ ██████ ██ █ ████ ██ █ ████ ███████ █████████
The author concludes that formal instruction is necessary for a strong foundation, because it’s often part of a good musical education, which is necessary for a strong foundation. However, “often” being included doesn’t make formal instruction necessary for a good education.
e
some children might ██████ ████ █████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ███ ███ ████ ███████ ██████████
The author only states that a good musical education is necessary to have a strong musical foundation. Whether or not a strong musical foundation is necessary to be a good musician isn’t relevant to the argument.