Self-study
Critic: Conclusion The recent biography of Shakespeare does not explain what is of most interest about him. ██ ██ ██ ██ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███████████ ████████ ███ ██ ████ █ ████ ███ ██ ███████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ███████████ ██ █ ███ ██ ████ █████ ███ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ████ ████ ███████████ █████████ ████ ███ ███████████████
Summary
The author concludes that the recent biography of Shakespeare does not explain what is most interesting about him. This is based on the fact that the biography doesn’t explain what made Shakespeare different from his contemporaries.
Missing Connection
The conclusion asserts that the biography doesn’t explain what’s “most interesting” about Shakespeare. But the premise doesn’t tell us anything about the concept of what’s “most interesting” about Shakespeare. All that the premise establishes is that the biography doesn’t explain what made Shakespeare different from his contemporaries. The missing link is the assumption that what made Shakespeare different from his contemporaries IS the most interesting thing about Shakespeare.
7.
The conclusion of the argument ███ ██ ████████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
There is no ███ ██ ████ ████ ████ ███████████ █████████ ████ ███ ███████████████
(A) doesn’t tell us what’s most interesting about Shakespeare. So if the premise also doesn’t say anything about what’s most interesting, (A) can’t establish the conclusion.
b
The life of ███ ███████ ███ ██ ███████████ ███████ ██ ██████████████
(B) doesn’t tell us what’s most interesting about Shakespeare. So if the premise also doesn’t say anything about what’s most interesting, (B) can’t establish the conclusion. The fact the average person was uninteresting has nothing to do with what’s most interesting about Shakespeare.
c
Shakespeare was very █████████ ████ ███ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████
(C) doesn’t tell us what’s most interesting about Shakespeare. So if the premise also doesn’t say anything about what’s most interesting, (C) can’t establish the conclusion. The fact Shakespeare was very different from other men does not imply that what made him different was the most interesting thing about him.
d
A biography should ██████ █████ ██ ████ █████ ███ ███████ ████████████
What a biography should do tells us nothing about whether this particular biography does or does not explain what’s most interesting about Shakespeare.
e
What is most ███████████ █████ ███████████ ██ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ███ ███████████████
We know from the premise that the biography doesn’t explain what made him different from his contemporaries. (A) establishes that what made him different is the most interesting thing about him. So the biography doesn’t explain the most interesting thing about him.