Self-study
Support During the 1980s, Japanese collectors were very active in the market for European art, especially as purchasers of nineteenth-century Impressionist paintings. ████ ████████ ███████ ██████ ████████ █ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████ ██ ████ ████████ ██████████ ███ ███████ █████████ ██████████ ████ █████ ██ ██████████████████ █████████████ ██████████
Summarize Argument: Phenomenon-Hypothesis
The author concludes that Japanese art collectors in the 1980s preferred certain aesthetic attributes in nineteenth-century Impressionist paintings. This is because Japanese art collectors were very active in purchasing such paintings in the 1980s.
Notable Assumptions
The author assumes that Japanese collectors bought nineteenth-century Impressionist paintings in the 1980s out of aesthetic preference, rather than for another reason. For example, perhaps collectors believed such paintings would rise in value and planned to sell later on.
5.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Impressionist paintings first ██████ ███████ █████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ████████
If European collectors began liking Impressionist art in the early twentieth century, what connection does that have to Japanese collectors 80 years later? As far as we know, none—this is irrelevant.
b
During the 1980s, ███ ████████ ███████ █████████ █ █████████ █████████ ████ ███ █████████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ ████████
This doesn’t tell us anything about why Japanese collectors were so interested in nineteenth-century Impressionism, so it's not relevant to the argument.
c
Several nineteenth-century Impressionist ████████ ███████ ███████ ██████████ ███ ██████ ███████ █████ ██ ████████ ██████ ████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ██████
Nineteenth-century Impressionist paintings borrowed from esteemed Japanese prints, so the paintings certainly had aesthetic elements that Japanese collectors would appreciate. This supports the idea that the preference was aesthetic.
Causal mechanism
Causal mechanism
Answers that undermine, or help establish, the practical story of how an alleged cause could produce the alleged effect.
d
During the 1960s ███ ██████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████████████ █████████████ █████████ █████ ████████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ ████████
In previous decades, Impressionist art had been very valuable. If anything, this suggests an economic motive for buying Impressionist art: what if it rose in price again? That certainly doesn't support the argument.
e
During the 1980s, ██████████ ████ █████ ███ ██████ ███ █████ █████████ ████ █████████ ███ ██████ ██ ██████████ █████████████████ ████████ ████████
The fact that some Japanese artists were globally popular doesn't tell us anything useful about nineteenth-century Impressionism and Japanese collectors. This is irrelevant to the argument.