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Drama critic: There were many interesting plays written last year. ██████ ████ ████ ████ ██████████ ██████████ ███ ██ █████ █ ███ ██████ ███ ████ ████ ████ ███████ ████ ████████ ████████ ███ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ███████ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ████████ ██ ██ █████████ █████████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ███ █████ ████ ██████████ ███████ █████ ███████ ███ ████ ██ ███ █████ ███████ ████ ████ ███████ █████ ██████ ██ █ ████████████ ████████ ████
Summary
The author concludes that none of the many interesting plays written last year will be popular several centuries from now.
Why? Because of the following:
In order for a play to be performed regularly over many decades and centuries, it must skillfully explore human nature.
The plays written last year (including the interesting ones) do not skillfully explore human nature.
Notable Assumptions
Notice that the conclusion bring up a new concept — not being popular several centuries from now. The premises don’t say anything about what will be unpopular several centuries from now, so we know the author must assume something about this concept.
To go further, we can anticipate a more specific connection to get from the premises to the conclusion. We know from the premises that the interesting plays written last year won’t be performed regularly over the coming decades and centuries (because they don’t examine human nature in a particularly skillful way). The author assumes that if the plays aren’t performed regularly over the coming decades and centuries, then they won’t be popular several centuries from now. Or, in other words, in order to be popular several centuries from now, they must be performed regularly.
14.
The argument relies on assuming █████ ███ ██ ███ ██████████
a
No play will ██ ███████ ███████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ██ █████████ █████████ ██████ ███ ███████████ █████
b
For a play ██ ███████ ████ ████████ ███████ ██ ████ ██ ███████ ███ ████ ████ ████ █ ███ ██████
c
There were no █████ ███████ ████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ██████████
d
If a play ████ ███ ██████████ ███████ █████ ███████ ██ ████ ███ ███████ ████████ ████████
e
Any play that ██████████ ████████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ █████████ ████ ███ ██████████