Self-study
Support Kostman's original painting of Rosati was not a very accurate portrait. ██████████ ████ ████████████ ██ █████████ ████████ ██ ██████ ████ ███ ██ █ ████ ████████ ████████████ ██ ███ █████████
Method of Reasoning
The argument starts by mentioning how Kostman's painting of Rosati was an inaccurate portrait. It then uses that fact as a premise to conclude that a copy of Kostman's painting will necessarily be an inaccurate reproduction of that painting.
Identify and Describe Flaw
Let's track the flow of the argument here: Because Kostman's painting was a bad representation of Rosati, the copy of Kostman's painting will be a bad copy of that painting. More abstractly, because B is a bad copy of A (what Rosati really looks like), C will be a bad copy of B. The flaw in the reasoning here is that the inaccuracy of the first work (B, Kostman's painting) doesn't somehow "carry over" to guarantee that the second work (C, the next artist's copy) will be a bad representation of B.
As an analogy, just because you take a blurry picture of a tree doesn't mean you can't make an accurate photocopy of that picture. You can! The photocopy of the blurry picture can be 100% accurate. It'll just also depict the tree blurry. This kind of argument would be a little more plausible if it said C would be a bad copy of A: the copy of Kostman's painting will likely still be an inaccurate representation of Rosati, and the photocopy of the picture will still show a blurry image of the tree. But as the argument stands, it assumes that the inaccuracy in one given object or process (Kostman's painting, which inaccurately represents Rosati) has to carry over to the replication of that object or process (the copy of Kostman's painting). That's the flaw we're looking for.
21.
Which one of the following ██ ████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████
a
George's speech was ██████ ████ ███████████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ █████████ ████ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ██ ████ █████ ████████
This answer choice states that because there were problems with George's speech, the tape recording of that speech cannot be of good quality. This is the flaw pattern we're looking for: the problems with an initial object (in this case, George's speech) are assumed to "carry over" to a replication of that object.
What might make this answer choice seem tricky is that in the stimulus, the first work, Kostman's painting, is described as a bad representation of something else — what Rosati looks like — while here it might seem like George's speech is simply described as bad. But George's speech is specifically described as full of "half-truths and misquotes." This means the speech is an inaccurate representation of reality, of what is actually true and what people actually said, similar to how Kostman's painting inaccurately represents the specific reality of what Rosati looks like. This lets us, again, see the same pattern as in the stimulus: both arguments assume that because B is a bad representation of A, C must be a bad representation of B.
b
An artist who ██████ █ ███████ ██ ██ ████ █████ ████ ███████████ █████ ██ ████ ████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ██ █ █████████ ██████████████ ██ ███ ██████
This is arguably a flawed argument: perhaps a really good painter could depict an ugly scene in a way that is both accurate and beautiful. But in any case, this isn't the flawed pattern we're looking for. It might still be tempting, especially because the subject matter — painting — is similar to the stimulus. But it's important to remember that content doesn't matter in parallel question. Only the structure matters.
Note that we only have one "level" of copying going on here: the artist's painting of the scene. We don't have a second copy that replicates the first one. The problem with the argument in the stimulus was that it assumed the second copy would inaccurately represent the first copy, because the first copy inacccurately represented its subject. But in this case, not only do we not have a second copy, we don't even know that the first copy is inaccurate. The point of this answer choice seems to be that a painting of an ugly scene can either be accurate and ugly, or inaccurate and not ugly. Again, this may well be a flawed argument, but it has a very different structure from what we see in the stimulus.
c
If a child's ████ ████████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ██ ██████
This could be flawed, depending on what the term "resemble" is referring to (color versus shape, size, etc). But in any case, this is a very different structure from the stimulus. This is a conditional argument laying out the conditions under which a given "copy" (the child's eyes) can be accurate in a given respect (color) relative to the original (the mother's eyes). While this answer choice talks about accuracy and only about one instance of copying or resemblance, the stimulus is about inaccuracy and talks about two "levels" of copying.
d
Jo imitated Layne. ███ ██ ██ █████████ ████ ██████ ██ ██ █████ ███ ████ ████████ █████ ████ █████
This is a tricky answer choice, because it does seem to reach a flawed conclusion about an imitation or copy based on some initial difference or flaw. But the difficulty is that we're only talking about one instance of copying or imitation. The answer choice says Jo's imitation of Layne cannot be accurate because Jo and Layne are different. This would be similar to the stimulus saying that Kostman's painting of Rosati was inaccurate because Kostman and Rosati look different. That would be a clear flaw, but a different flaw from what we see in the stimulus.
More abstractly, where the stimulus concluded that because B is a bad copy of A, C must be a bad copy of B, this answer choice roughly says that B (Jo's imitation) is a bad copy of A (Layne's mannerisms) because the makers of B and A (Jo and Layne) are different. In short, there is no C term here — no second level of copying, which is where the flaw in the stimulus resides.
e
Harold's second novel ██ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ██████████ ███ ██████ █████ ████ ██ ████████████ ███████ ███ █████ █████ ███ █ ███████████ ████████ ██████
Not only does the validity of this argument depend on what "similar" means, the argument also assumes that winning a prestigious prize will ensure that a novel is "enthralling." While this answer choice is flawed, this is a different pattern than what we're looking for. The stimulus talked about two "levels" of copying, both of which were stated or argued to be inaccurate. This answer choice only talks about one case of "copying" (or rather of resemblance), which is claimed to be accurate, and then makes a conclusion about a specific trait on the basis of that claim.
In other words, the stimulus said C must be a bad copy of B, because B was a bad copy of A. This answer choice says that because A and B are similar, and A had a certain trait (winning the prize), B will have a certain different trait (being enthralling). This is a flawed argument, but a very different structure from our stimulus.