Self-paced
A work of architecture, if it is to be both inviting and functional for public use, must be unobtrusive, taking second place to the total environment. ██████ ███████████ ███████ ██ ███████ ████ ████████ ████ ████████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██████ █████████████ ████ ████ █████ █████ █████████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███ ██████ ████
Stimulus Breakdown
The stimulus starts out with a rule of architecture: if architectural works are inviting and functional, then they must be unobtrusive. Unobtrusiveness is posed as a necessary condition for a work to be inviting and functional.
We then learn something about modern architects: they have broken this rule due to their egoism and strong personalities. The result of this is buildings that are not functional.
These two facts—that modern architects have broken the rule, and that their buildings thus turn out non-functional—allow us to make an inference: that modern architects have produced buildings that are not unobtrusive. That's the only way that the rule we were given could lead to a non-functional building.
4.
Which one of the statements █████ ███████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████
a
Unobtrusive architecture is ████ ████████ ███ ███████████
(A) doesn't have to be true; it's just an inversion of the rule of architecture posed by the stimulus. The stimulus tells us unobtrusiveness is necessary for a building to be inviting and functional; it doesn't necessarily follow that unobtrusiveness is sufficient for those goals as well.
b
Modern architects who ███ █████ ██████ █████████████ ████ ████ █████ ████ ███████ █████████ ████ ███ ███ ████████████
(B) must be true because of what the stimulus says about modern architects. When their strong personalities take over their work, that breaks the rule that unobtrusiveness is necessary for an inviting, functional building—and produces non-functional buildings. The only way this makes sense is if those modern architects create buildings that are not unobtrusive.
c
An architect with █ ██████ ███████████ ██████ ███████ █████████ ████ ████████ ████ ███ ███ ███████
The stimulus describes one circumstance in which architects with strong personalities produce buildings that aren't functional. However, it doesn't have to be true that this always happens. If an architect just doesn't let their strong personality take over their work, they might be fine.
d
A work of ████████████ ████ █████ ██████ █████ ██ ███ ███████████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ████
Much like (A), (D) rests on an inversion of the rule given in the stimulus. The stimulus says that unobtrusiveness is necessary for a building to be functional. That doesn't mean unobtrusiveness always guarantees functionality, though; unobtrusiveness doesn't have to be a sufficient condition.
e
A work of ████████████ ██████ ██████████████ ███████ ███ █████████████ ███████████ ███ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████ ████
The stimulus discusses cases where an architect's personality takes over their work. Perhaps in those cases the building can't be functional, but that's not necessarily the only way a work can express an architect's personality. If an architect does so in a more restrained way, they could still produce a functional building.