Given the amount of time and effort that curators, collectors, dealers, scholars, and critics spend on formulating judgments of taste in relation to oil paintings, it seems odd that so few are prepared to apply some of the same skills in exploring works of art that stimulate another sense altogether: that of smell. ███ ██ █████ ███████ ███ █████ ████ ██████████ █████ ███ █████████████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████████ █████████████ ███ ██████ █ ████ ███ ██ ████ █ ██████████ █████████ ███ █████████ █████ █ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ███████ ██ ██████ ███ ████ ███ ███████ ███ ████ ███████████ ██ █████ █████████
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Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████████████ ██ ███ ████████
The first paragraph █████ ██ ████████████ ███ ██████ ██████████ █████████ ██ ████ ███████████ █████ ███████████ ███ ████████ ███████████ ███ ███ ███ ███ █████ █████████ ████████ ██ ███████████ ████████████
The easiest way to eliminate this is to notice that there’s no “alternative explanation” offered in the last paragraph. The author offers only one potential explanation for why great perfume isn’t taken more seriously. She doesn’t offer one explanation in the middle paragraphs and another explanation in the last paragraph.
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The easiest way to eliminate this is to notice that the author does not “reject a particular challenge” to the author’s thesis in the last paragraph. The last paragraph answers the question posed in P1.
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P1 does not involve a “challenge to received wisdom.” There is no “received wisdom” described in P1 — the tendency of people not to take perfume seriously isn’t some advice or teaching passed down from others.
The first paragraph █████ █ █████████ ███ ██████ ██████████ ███████ █ ████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ██████ ██ ████ █████████ ███ ███ █████ █████████ ████████ █ ████████ ██████ ██ ███ █████████
This is the best answer. P1 presents the question of why great perfume isn’t taken more seriously. The middle paragraphs justify the posing of that question by establishing that perfume-making is art. The last paragraph presents a potential answer to the question in P1: corporate control of perfume-making might explain why it isn’t taken more seriously.
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The author doesn’t offer “two consequences” of what’s described in P1. The middle paragraphs involve a comparison between perfume-making and painting to establish that perfume-making is an art. They don’t describe anything that results from P1’s question of why great perfume isn’t taken more seriously.