Museum paintings

This topic has expert replies
Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 377
Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:30 am
Thanked: 15 times
Followed by:2 members

Museum paintings

by schumi_gmat » Mon Oct 06, 2008 5:49 pm
When storing Renaissance oil paintings, museums conform to standards that call for careful control of the surrounding temperature and humidity, with variations confined within narrow margins. Maintaining this environment is very costly, and recent research shows that even old oil paint is unaffected by wide fluctuations in temperature and humidity. Therefore, museums could relax their standards and save money without
endangering their Renaissance oil paintings.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the argument depends?

A. Renaissance paintings were created in conditions involving far greater
fluctuations in temperature and humidity than those permitted by current
standards.
B. Under the current standards that museums use when storing Renaissance oil paintings, those paintings do not deteriorate at all.
C. Museum collections typically do not contain items that are more likely to be vulnerable to fluctuations in temperature and humidity than Renaissance oil paintings.
D. None of the materials in Renaissance oil paintings other than the paint are vulnerable enough to relatively wide fluctuations in temperature and humidity to cause damage to the paintings.
E. Most Renaissance oil paintings are stored in museums located in regions near the regions where the paintings were created.

IMO A

OA D
Source: — Critical Reasoning |

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 267
Joined: Wed Jul 16, 2008 12:20 am
Thanked: 4 times
Followed by:1 members

by Mani_mba » Mon Oct 06, 2008 8:25 pm
IMO D

Here in my opinion, A just strengthens the argument. But without D, i would say, the argument is not complete.

If the materials other than the renaissance oil paints are vulnerable enough to relatively wide fluctuations in temperature and humidity, then the renaissance paintings would be seriously damaged and hence museum must conform to control standards.

User avatar
Legendary Member
Posts: 871
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 7:48 am
Thanked: 48 times

by stop@800 » Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:58 am
D is the correct answer

because the clause says "even old oil paint is unaffected by wide fluctuations in temperature and humidity. "
but what about other components??


A:
creation condition hardly matters
they might have created in normal environment
but preservation will certainly require different set of conditions

Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts
Posts: 300
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 10:33 am

by kris77 » Thu May 12, 2016 1:07 pm
I'm pretty confident that D is correct answe