Those who support the continued reading and performance of Shakespeare’s plays maintain that in England appreciation for his work has always extended beyond educated elites and that ever since Shakespeare’s own time his plays have always been known and loved by comparatively uneducated people. ██████████ █████ ████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ██ █████████ █████ ██████████████████ ████████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ██████ ████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ████ █████████ ████ ████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ █████ ██ ██████ ██ ████████ ██████
The argument concludes that there is reason to be skeptical of a particular claim: that appreciation for Shakespeare's work in England has always included people beyond just educated elites. In other words, the argument concludes that there is reason to believe that Shakespeare's work has not always been appreciated by people other than educated elites.
This conclusion is supported by evidence about editions of Shakespeare's plays from the eighteenth century. At this time, Shakespeare's plays were printed in high-quality books, which were too expensive for ordinary people. In other words, these books were only used by educated elites.
Wait a second, though—since when is owning a book necessary to appreciate a work of theater? The argument seems to make an unwarranted assumption that in the eighteenth century, only people with access to printed editions of Shakespeare's plays could have known and loved those plays.
The main point of the ████████ ██ ██
suggest that knowledge ██ ███████████████ █████ ██ █ ████████ █████████ ███ ██████████████ ███ ████████ █████ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ███████ ███████
The argument doesn't make any attempt to define who belongs to different classes in English society. It relies on this distinction, but takes it for granted rather than explaining what determines class membership.
provide evidence that ██ ████ ████ ██ ███ ████ ████████████ ███ ███████████████ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ████████ ██████
The argument aims to back up skepticism about a claim that Shakespeare's work has always been known and loved by people other than educated elites. It specifically offers evidence to suggest that in the eighteenth century, appreciation of Shakespeare's work may have been confined to educated elites. This is the point of the argument: to give evidence that the claim may be false.
prove that early ██████████████████ ████████████ ███ ███████████████ █████ ██████ ██ ███████ ██ ███ █████ ████ ███ ████ ███████████ █████
The argument never discusses different aspects of Shakespeare's work, just who appreciated it. It also doesn't talk about modern appreciation of Shakespeare, but only addresses the early eighteenth century.
demonstrate that since ███████████████ ████ ███ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ███ █████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ████ ███████ ██ ████████ ██████
(D) goes too far to express the main point of the argument. Yes, the argument aims to show that only educated elites appreciated Shakespeare's work—but only at a specific point in time. The only evidence given in the argument is about the eighteenth century. The argument doesn't address anything before or after that point, let alone the entire time since Shakespeare lived.
confirm the skepticism ██ ███ ████████ █████ ██████████ ███ █████ ██ ███████████████ █████
Nothing in the stimulus mentions a skepticism of the educated elite towards Shakespeare's plays. The skepticism that the argument aims to confirm is skepticism about a particular claim: that Shakespeare's work has always been appreciated by people beyond just the educated elite.
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