Critical Reasoning

Found this on the another forum...

A medieval manuscript called L contains all eighteen extant tragedies by the Greek playwright Euripides. Of these, ten called the “select plays,” are accompanied in L by ancient commentaries and also appear in other medieval manuscripts; this group includes some of Euripides’ best-known works, including the Medea. The other eight, which appear in alphabetical order, without commentary. The Electra is one of the alphabeticals.

Which of the following can be reliably concluded on the basis of the Statements given?

A. Only Euripides’ best-known works are accompanied by ancient
commentaries in extant medieval manuscripts.

B. The select plays are accompanied by ancient commentaries
because they were the best known of Euripides’ works.

C. No commentaries were written about Euripides’ Electra in
ancient times.

D. Euripides’ Medea never appears in medieval manuscripts
unaccompanied by ancient commentary.

E. Euripides’ Electra does not appear accompanied by a commentary
in any extant medieval manuscript.

[spoiler]I thought the answer was B. There was a debate between B and E. I don't see how you E can be right though. You can't assume that Electra does not appear in another commentary (hence the word ANY used in E).[/spoiler]

what's wrong with c

well this is why i selected E

while reading go on linking each sentence with the previous one....

out of 18, 10 were select plays,which had ancient commentaries and also used in other medieval manuscripts. Medea was one of them.

The OTHER 8 ( this implies that these 8 dnt have commentaries and dnt appear in any medieval manuscripts ) are placed in alphabetical order. Electra is one of them.

This is exactly what E says....

ambarish_ranade wrote:what's wrong with c

We can't assume anything. Maybe a commentary was written on Electra in some book called Amazing Commentaries.

PAB2706 wrote:well this is why i selected E

while reading go on linking each sentence with the previous one....

out of 18, 10 were select plays,which had ancient commentaries and also used in other medieval manuscripts. Medea was one of them.

The OTHER 8 ( this implies that these 8 dnt have commentaries and dnt appear in any medieval manuscripts ) are placed in alphabetical order. Electra is one of them.

This is exactly what E says....

You are right about there being no commentaries on Electra in L. But the statement provided in answer choice E says "any extant medieval manuscript". There could be hundreds of others of extant medieval manuscripts that contain a commentary on Elecrtra. We don't know this though.

I am not convinced with B because from no where in the Stimulus it can be concluded that "The select plays are accompanied by ancient commentaries because they were the best known of Euripides’ works."

Since all other choices also seem to be wrong so I would choose B just because all other choices are wrong..

cata1yst wrote:Found this on the another forum...

A medieval manuscript called L contains all eighteen extant tragedies by the Greek playwright Euripides. Of these, ten called the “select plays,” are accompanied in L by ancient commentaries and also appear in other medieval manuscripts; this group includes some of Euripides’ best-known works, including the Medea. The other eight, which appear in alphabetical order, without commentary. The Electra is one of the alphabeticals.

Which of the following can be reliably concluded on the basis of the Statements given?

A. Only Euripides’ best-known works are accompanied by ancient
commentaries in extant medieval manuscripts.

B. The select plays are accompanied by ancient commentaries
because they were the best known of Euripides’ works.

C. No commentaries were written about Euripides’ Electra in
ancient times.

D. Euripides’ Medea never appears in medieval manuscripts
unaccompanied by ancient commentary.

E. Euripides’ Electra does not appear accompanied by a commentary
in any extant medieval manuscript.

[spoiler]I thought the answer was B. There was a debate between B and E. I don't see how you E can be right though. You can't assume that Electra does not appear in another commentary (hence the word ANY used in E).[/spoiler]

cata1yst wrote:Found this on the another forum...

A medieval manuscript called L contains all eighteen extant tragedies by the Greek playwright Euripides. Of these, ten called the ?select plays,? are accompanied in L by ancient commentaries and also appear in other medieval manuscripts; this group includes some of Euripides? best-known works, including the Medea. The other eight, which appear in alphabetical order, without commentary. The Electra is one of the alphabeticals.

Which of the following can be reliably concluded on the basis of the Statements given?

A. Only Euripides? best-known works are accompanied by ancient
commentaries in extant medieval manuscripts.

B. The select plays are accompanied by ancient commentaries
because they were the best known of Euripides? works.

C. No commentaries were written about Euripides? Electra in
ancient times.

D. Euripides? Medea never appears in medieval manuscripts
unaccompanied by ancient commentary.

E. Euripides? Electra does not appear accompanied by a commentary
in any extant medieval manuscript.

[spoiler]I thought the answer was B. There was a debate between B and E. I don't see how you E can be right though. You can't assume that Electra does not appear in another commentary (hence the word ANY used in E).[/spoiler]

Is the OA correct ??

What does "this group" refer to?

Request some expert to help on this one.

Regards.

I like this question

Does anybody know the source? It feels GMAT-y to me in terms of content and the way the answer choices are worded.

Anyhow, let me hopefully clear things up a little.

We know that:

the "select plays" in 'L' are accompanied by commentaries
the "select plays" are ALSO found in other manuscripts.
the "select plays" contain SOME of Euripides' best known plays.
Medea is a "select play."


Now for the "other eight," which are in contrast to the "select plays."

We know the "other eight" do not include commentary.
We know the "other eight" appear in alphabetical order. (Suggesting that the "select plays" are not in alphabetical order).
Electra is an "alphabetical." -------> Electra does not include commentary

Now there is one little step. Notice how the "select plays" differ from "the alphabeticals" in that they are ALSO found in other medieval manuscripts. Therefore the "other eight" are not found in medieval manuscripts ------> Electra does not appear in other ancient manuscripts. The only manuscript it does appear in it is not accompanied by commentary. Thus (E).

For (D), we know Medea appears in other medieval manuscripts. We do not know whether these manuscripts have commentary.

For (B), we do not know for certain why the "select plays" had commentaries. Commonsense tells us that it was probably because they were Euripides' best known work. However, based on the argument, we cannot logically conclude that.

Hope that was helpful .

I would like to point out that this is a gmat prep exam pack 1 question. And as it is the question posted above lacks a certain but really important part of information i.e the statements in the official question explicitly state that the other 8 plays are found ONLY in L. Pretty important I suppose but the same info is omitted in the stimulus posted above.