Critical Reasoning

Curator: If our museum lends Venus to the Hart Institute for their show this spring, they will lend us their Rembrandt etchings for our print exhibition next fall. Having those etchings will increase attendance to the exhibition and hence increase revenue from our general admission fee.

Museum Administrator: But Venus is our biggest attraction. Moreover the Hart's show will run for twice as long as our exhibition. So on balance the number of patrons may decrease.

The point of the administrator's response to the curator is to question

(A) whether getting the Rembrandt etchings from the Hart Institute is likely to increase attendance at the print exhibition
(B) whether the Hart Institute's Rembrandt etchings will be appreciated by those patrons of the curator's museum for whom the museum's biggest attraction is Venus
(C) whether the number of patrons attracted by the Hart Institute's Rembrandt etchings will be larger than the number of patrons who do not come in the spring because Venus is on loan
(D) whether, if Venus is lent, the museum's revenue from general admission fees during the print exhibition will exceed its revenue from general admission fees during the Hart Institute's exhibition
(E) whether the Hart Institute or the curator's museum will have the greater financial gain from the proposed exchange of artworks

[spoiler]OA:C[/spoiler]

It is better to simplify the argument.

Curator
Rembrandt etchings in exchange for Venus --> increase attendance at print exhibition --> increase revenue from general admission fees.

Museum Administrator
Hart's show will run twice as long as the exhibition --> On balance the number of patrons may decrease.

The administrator attacks the Curator's argument that his/her conclusion that revenues from general admission fees will increase might not be true.
Note that we are looking at revenue gain from displaying Rembrandt etchings vs revenue loss from lending Venus and NOT the overall revenues during the show and exhibition.

The administrator's argument is this -
BECAUSE
Increase in number of patrons due to displaying Rembrandt's etchings - Decrease in number of patrons due to lending Venus during Hart's show < 0
THEN, Revenue gain from Rembrandt's etchings - Revenue loss from lending Venus during Hart's show < 0.

Note that we are talking about only increase/decrease (and not all patrons).

A - the administrator does not disagree with this.

B - we do not have any information on this. All we know is that displaying those etchings will increase attendance during the exhibition. We have no idea whether they will be "appreciated" or not.

C - correct answer.
the administrator counters the curator's argument by saying that on balance the number of patrons might decrease. Hence, revenues might not increase because of this decision.

D - incorrect. this option is irrelevant.
let us use numbers.
during the exhibition = 500 (normal attendance); with etchings = increased to 550.
during the show = 200 (normal attendance); Venus lent to Hart = reduced to 120.
the administrator is comparing 50 (increase) to 80 (decrease) and NOT 550 to 120 (this is done by option D).
We are not interested in the overall revenue but in increase vs decrease of revenues because of a particular strategy.

E - we are only interested in the financial gain/loss for the Museum.[/i]

joealam1 wrote:Curator: If our museum lends Venus to the Hart Institute for their show this spring, they will lend us their Rembrandt etchings for our print exhibition next fall. Having those etchings will increase attendance to the exhibition and hence increase revenue from our general admission fee.

Museum Administrator: But Venus is our biggest attraction. Moreover the Hart's show will run for twice as long as our exhibition. So on balance the number of patrons may decrease.

The point of the administrator's response to the curator is to question

(A) whether getting the Rembrandt etchings from the Hart Institute is likely to increase attendance at the print exhibition
(B) whether the Hart Institute's Rembrandt etchings will be appreciated by those patrons of the curator's museum for whom the museum's biggest attraction is Venus
(C) whether the number of patrons attracted by the Hart Institute's Rembrandt etchings will be larger than the number of patrons who do not come in the spring because Venus is on loan
(D) whether, if Venus is lent, the museum's revenue from general admission fees during the print exhibition will exceed its revenue from general admission fees during the Hart Institute's exhibition
(E) whether the Hart Institute or the curator's museum will have the greater financial gain from the proposed exchange of artworks

[spoiler]OA:C[/spoiler]

Could verbal expert help to explain this question? Are we comparing the number of patrons attended during print exhibition? Answer choice A is attractive.