What does the phrase "what's more" mean?

Accounts Playable

I am doing the Miscellaneous Questions Problem Set 5, and 18.4.21 has me really confused. I googled the meaning and got this: http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/11060/how-to-use-what-is-more

To me it boils down to "furthermore." If that is the case, then how is B not the correct answer? Wouldn't starting your response argument with "furthermore..." mean that you are using the same premises as the previous argument?

Independently, I don't see how E accurately describes the relationship between the arguments. What is the conflicting supposition? I think this answer choice is trying to get you to assume that since there is no general agreement in evaluating the merits of sound (Jane's argument), Mark's claim about "tonal quality" conflicts with that idea. But, isn't tone a more refined idea than sound?

I Googled the definition of sound and got: "vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach a person's or animal's ear." The definition of tone according to Google is: "A musical tone is a steady periodic sound. A musical tone is characterized by its duration, pitch, intensity (or loudness), and timbre (or quality). The notes used in music can be more complex than musical tones, as they may include aperiodic aspects, such as attack transients, vibrato, and envelope modulation."

Sound to me could be anything: random noises to steady/periodic/intentional sound choice. Musical tone, which is a type of sound, has to more with the latter than the former. Doesn't this mean that Jane's premises about sound and Mark's premise about tone both be true? Aren't sound and tone related, but not completely synonymous? I don't see how they necessarily conflict, which is what answer choice E states.

Jonathan Wang

What premise does it share? Jane's premise is that there is no widely accepted basis for evaluating sound. Which of Mark's statements does that support?

You're way overthinking sound versus tone. Here, Mark is clearly referring to the guitar's sound when he makes reference to sound, and "tonal quality" also refers back to the guitar's sound. You'd have to ignore a huge swath of the context for your interpretation of "random noises" to fly, as we're clearly not talking about just any sound.

The conflicting supposition is otherwise as you describe - Jane thinks there's no way to evaluate, and Mark's view requires there to be a way to evaluate.

Pacifico

"what's more" makes B a wrong answer because it is indicating that Mark is introducing an additional premise. Mark is basically saying if Harper's ideas could have improved the sound, they would've already done so.

The conflicting supposition is that Jane thinks it is impossible to objectively improve the sound of a guitar on an absolute scale because there is no basis for evaluating the merits of a guitar's sound. Mark is saying that it can in fact be done, because Torres did it, and if Harper could have done the same thing it would have already happened.

You're really getting lost in the details here; you're essentially missing for the forest because you're staring blankly at this tonal quality tree. Tone can be viewed as a subset of sound but it is essentially immaterial to the argument here. All you need to realize is that one person thinks there is an absolute way a guitar should sound, while the other does not. Does that help clear this up?

Accounts Playable

@Pacifico @"Jonathan Wang"

Thanks guys! I think it's pretty clear the sound vs. tone thing.

But, is it fair to say that for B to be correct, the arguments must share an explicitly stated premise? I figured the "what's more" was referencing Jane's argument in general (that Mark agrees with what Jane is saying). Specifically, I though that an implicit premise was that Jane and Mark agree that the Professor modified some guitars (Jane explicitly says this, but isn't this a necessary assumption for Mark?). What if B had stated that they share a conclusion? Would that have been a potentially correct answer choice?