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Artistic Persons

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by Testluv » Mon Apr 26, 2010 8:41 pm
What is the source of this question? I ask because, as the question is written, I don't think any of the five answer choices can be strictly inferred.

Choose F. :)
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by gmatmachoman » Mon Apr 26, 2010 9:23 pm
Testluv wrote:What is the source of this question? I ask because, as the question is written, I don't think any of the five answer choices can be strictly inferred.

Choose F. :)
Deepak Dada,

Awesome..Same thought I had....

(D) The right hemisphere of the brain controls artistic functions and thought.
Hold it. I am not comfortable with this choice. If someone can explain that would be great. ....

D speaks about artistic functions. But no where speaks about thought. !!
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by Testluv » Mon Apr 26, 2010 9:28 pm
In choice D, "controls" is extreme. All we have is a correlation between two variables: the trait of being artistic and the trait of being good at tasks that are dominated by the right hemisphere.
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by bleedthegmat » Tue Apr 27, 2010 1:30 am
treker wrote:Artistic persons contract viruses and infections more often than do non-artistic persons. However, artistic persons have a significant advantage over non-artistic persons, when performing tasks that are dominated by use of the right hemisphere of the brain, and writing fiction for most people is a task dominated by use of the right hemisphere of the brain.

The information above, if true, best supports which of the following hypotheses?

(A) There are proportionally more people who are more susceptible to viruses and infections than people who are artistic or accomplished fiction writers.
(B) If an artistic person contracts viruses often that person is likely to be an accomplished fiction writer.
(C) Most artistic writers of fiction contract some form of virus.
(D) The right hemisphere of the brain controls artistic functions and thought.
(E) Fiction writers are more likely to have artistic talent than are non-fiction writers.
E for me also...

A -> Opp to what the passage is alluding
B -> Too narrow in scope... this case might or might not be there
C -> A good suspect...
D -> Nowhere mentioned...they just said that artists use right hemisphere more..
E -> Best choice among the given answers
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by Testluv » Tue Apr 27, 2010 1:41 am
Choice E is not a proper inference. Because the passage never ever discussed non-fiction writers, we don't know how their creativity compares to that of fiction writers. Because choice E could be false, it is not a proper inference.

As an aside: GMAT CR is not about the "best answer" as many have suggested. As in the quant section of the GMAT, in CR/RC, there is always one (and only one) answer choice that fully satisfies the conditions in the question. This is the categorical distinction that separates the correct answer from the four incorrect ones. If this were not so, then the test would lose its meaning; scores would not be reflective of reasoning. There is always one right, and four rotten answers. (That is also why predicting and matching is a superior approach to POE, especially when one considers that the wrong answers have written to be seductive).
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by [email protected] » Tue Apr 27, 2010 3:13 am
Testluv wrote:Choice E is not a proper inference. Because the passage never ever discussed no
n-fiction writers, we don't know how their creativity compares to that of fiction writers. Because choice E could be false, it is not a proper inference.

As an aside: GMAT CR is not about the "best answer" as many have suggested. As in the quant section of the GMAT, in CR/RC, there is always one (and only one) answer choice that fully satisfies the conditions in the question. This is the categorical distinction that separates the correct answer from the four incorrect ones. If this were not so, then the test would lose its meaning; scores would not be reflective of reasoning. There is always one right, and four rotten answers. (That is also why predicting and matching is a superior approach to POE, especially when one considers that the wrong answers have written to be seductive).
Hi Testluv,

I think POE is meant for saving time plus predicting answer can, at times, take you to a different direction altogether.

Lets revisit the question again..

Lets say
Artistic persons contract viruses and infections more often than do non-artistic persons = "A"
artistic persons have a significant advantage over non-artistic persons, = "B"
performing tasks that are dominated by use of the right hemisphere of the brain ="C"
writing fiction for most people is a task dominated by use of the right hemisphere of the brain. ="D"


D is almost a subset of C
So if I replace C with D the statement becomes :: "most fiction writers have significant advantage over non-artistic persons" We can add A to this and say
most fiction writers have significant advantage over non artistic persons, but these people are more vulnerable to contract virus than a non artistic person.
Now Lets look at the answers again::


(A) There are proportionally more people who are more susceptible to viruses and infections than people who are artistic or accomplished fiction writers.
Ruled out :: COMPLETELY OPPOSITE TO WHAT THE STATEMENT IS MENTIONING.

(B) If an artistic person contracts viruses often that person is likely to be an accomplished fiction writer.
No relationship inside the "ARTISTIC PERSON" category is given. Lets say writers and musicians are artistic people. So we dont know whether the artistic person who contracts virus is a musician or writer, So it should be INCORRECT.

C) Most artistic writers of fiction contract some form of virus.
Again there is no information given which links the nature of artistic writers to the general behavior exhibited by Artistic persons. Infact there is nothing called as artistic writers in the complete paragraph. So we basically have to assume that Artistic writers are basically artistic persons who are fictional writers. As it involves a lot of assumptions so I will say "INCORRECT".

(D) The right hemisphere of the brain controls artistic functions and thought.
NO where mentioned in the paragraph...the para just says that artistic people use this side of the brain more than the other people... Nowhere it implies that right hemisphere is the one which is the controller.


(E) Fiction writers are more likely to have artistic talent than are non-fiction writers.

This again has its own flaws. It requires introduction of a new entity called non-fiction writers to the complete set, so if I go by reasoning this is INCORRECT.... But if I go by POE or lets say, If I have to choose least of the evils I will choose this one.

Please let me know if I am missing out something
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by Testluv » Tue Apr 27, 2010 8:28 am
Please let me know if I am missing out something
You are missing that this would never ever happen on the GMAT. Again, on the GMAT CR, one answer is demonstrably correct, and four are demonstrably incorrect. It seems here that all five answers are demonstrably incorrect.

Because we can often predict the right answer (or its behavior), because we are rewarded for announcing the accredited response, because there is no reward for articulating why wrong answers are wrong, and because wrong answers are written to be seductive, whenever it is possible, predicting and matching is superior to POE.

Now, when we are reviewing it is a great idea to figure out why wrong answers are wrong.
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by diebeatsthegmat » Fri Jun 04, 2010 10:32 am
treker wrote:Artistic persons contract viruses and infections more often than do non-artistic persons. However, artistic persons have a significant advantage over non-artistic persons, when performing tasks that are dominated by use of the right hemisphere of the brain, and writing fiction for most people is a task dominated by use of the right hemisphere of the brain.

The information above, if true, best supports which of the following hypotheses?

(A) There are proportionally more people who are more susceptible to viruses and infections than people who are artistic or accomplished fiction writers.
(B) If an artistic person contracts viruses often that person is likely to be an accomplished fiction writer.
(C) Most artistic writers of fiction contract some form of virus.
(D) The right hemisphere of the brain controls artistic functions and thought.
(E) Fiction writers are more likely to have artistic talent than are non-fiction writers.
it took me over 2 mins to choose C although i dont like it much so what is the official answer for this argument? i am so curious because well, i also dont really like any options in this argument. so extreme
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by diebeatsthegmat » Fri Jun 04, 2010 10:33 am
Testluv wrote:What is the source of this question? I ask because, as the question is written, I don't think any of the five answer choices can be strictly inferred.

Choose F. :)
lol
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by FightWithGMAT » Fri Jun 04, 2010 2:13 pm
treker wrote:Artistic persons contract viruses and infections more often than do non-artistic persons. However, artistic persons have a significant advantage over non-artistic persons, when performing tasks that are dominated by use of the right hemisphere of the brain, and writing fiction for most people is a task dominated by use of the right hemisphere of the brain.

The information above, if true, best supports which of the following hypotheses?

(A) There are proportionally more people who are more susceptible to viruses and infections than people who are artistic or accomplished fiction writers.
(B) If an artistic person contracts viruses often that person is likely to be an accomplished fiction writer.
(C) Most artistic writers of fiction contract some form of virus.
(D) The right hemisphere of the brain controls artistic functions and thought.
(E) Fiction writers are more likely to have artistic talent than are non-fiction writers.
Confusion !! Confusion !! and Confusion
Well my take is E (the only option that seems close to be an inference)
A--> I don't know what crap this talks about
B--Accomplished Fiction Writer.....wowwww...where word "accomplished" is mentioned. The entire argument talks about either artistic people or fiction writers
C-->MOST..extreme statement.
D--> The right hemisphere gives artists an advantage...but it would be harsh to infer that the right Hemisphere controls the artistic functions and THOUGHT, about which the argument does not talk about.

E-->Most people use THE RIGHT HEMISPHERE when they write fiction...AND THE RIGHT HEMISPHERE gives artists an advantage. So an inference can be drawn:

Most people who write fiction (fiction writers) have some kind of artistic talent THAT is not there to the same level in people who do not write fiction or who are not artists.

Now I want to see the OA :)
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by crackinggmat » Sat Jun 05, 2010 1:37 pm
it should be C because C is the only one that talks about virus ,and artistic writting.
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by Testluv » Sat Jun 05, 2010 2:33 pm
We can't infer Choice C. We know that artistic persons are more likely to contract a virus than are non-aritistic persons. This does not allows us to infer that MOST artistic people who write fiction contract viruses (MOST means more than 1/2).

We can't infer Choice E. If we regard fiction writing as something that exemplifies "artistic talent", then we can infer that fiction writers have artistic talent. But we can't infer that fiction writers are more likely to have artistic talent than non-fiction writers (it may well be that non-fiction writers are more likely to have some other kind of artistic talent other than fiction-writing).
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by bupbebeo » Sun Jun 06, 2010 12:25 am
after all discussion, Treker please post the OA and the source of your question
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by martin.jonson007 » Sun Jun 06, 2010 4:34 am
obviously D
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by Testluv » Sun Jun 06, 2010 11:14 pm
martin.jonson007 wrote:obviously D
Choice D is likely the accredited response but as I dicussed above, it cannot be properly inferred. As I discussed above, none of the five choices can be properly inerred, and worrying about this question is a complete waste of time.
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