Self-study
Art critic: Support Nowadays, museum visitors seldom pause to look at a work of art for even a full minute. ████ █████ ███████ ████ █ █████████ ███ ████ ███ ████ █████ ██ █████████ █████ ███ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ███ ███████ ████ █████ ██████ ████ ██████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██ ███ ████ ████ ████ █████
Summary
The author concludes that people today are less willing to engage with works of art than they used to be.
What makes the author think this?
Today, musuem visitors rarely look at a work of art for a full minute.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that the amount of time a person looks at an artwork indicates something about the person’s level of engagement with that artwork.
The author assumes that in the past, museum visitors typically spent at least a minute looking at artwork in a museum.
4.
The art critic's argument depends ██ ███ ██████████ ████
a
museum visitors today █████████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ██████ ████████ ██████ ██ ██ ███ ████
Not necessary, because even if visitors today do NOT generally look at more pieces of art during a visit, that’s consistent with the author’s reasoning. In fact, it might even help the argument to learn that people don’t look at more pieces of art, because that might constitute additional evidence that people are less engaged with works of art than they once were.
b
the ease with █████ ██████ ████████ ███ ████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██ ███ █████ ████ █████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ███████
Not necessary, because what allows people to go through museums faster is irrelevant. What matters is whether the time spent looking at an artwork in a museum is evidence of level of engagement.
c
visitors would enjoy █████ ██████ ███████████ ████ ██ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ██████████ █████ ██ ███
Not necessary, because “enjoyment” is irrelevant. What matters is whether the time spent looking at an artwork in a museum is evidence of level of engagement.
d
museum visitors who ████ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ████████ █████████
Not necessary, because even if the visitors who take snapshots of works frequently look at the pictures afterward, the author’s reasoning is based on the time spent looking at the work of art in the museum. The author does not have to believe time spent looking at a picture of a work of art is equivalent to time spent looking at the art itself in a museum for the purpose of determining level of engagement. In addition, we only know that people “perhaps take a snapshot” — so we have no reason to think that the people who take snapshots represent a significant portion of museum visitors generally.
e
the amount of ████ █████ ███████ ██ █ ████ ██ ███ ██ █ ████████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████ ████
Necessary, because if it were not true — if the amount of time spent looking at a work of art is NOT a reliable measure of engagement with that work — then the fact people today tend to spend under a minute looking at artwork would not constitute evidence of their level of engagement with artwork.