Critical Reasoning

ssgmatter wrote: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.
Incorrect : Comparison between conditions in which painting were made and painting are stored only helps to strengthen the argument but it is certainly not an assumption.

B. Under the current standards that museums use when storing Renaissance oil paintings, those paintings do not deteriorate at all.
Incorrect : If this answer choice is negated it does not weaken the argument. Eliminated.

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.
Incorrect : Issue is only about renaissance oil paintings. Other items in the museum are irrelevant to the scope of the argument.

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.
Correct : The author takes into account only OIL PAINT in OIL PAINTINGS to come to the conclusion that museums should relax its standards for control of tempt. and humidity. The author fails to take into account other things (frame, canvas etc) that also are a part of a painting which needs protection. This is the underlying assumption on which the argument depends.

E. Most Renaissance oil paintings are stored in museums located in regions near the regions where the paintings were created.
Incorrect : Regions where paintings were created and paintings are stored is clearly irrelevant here.

DanaJ wrote:The key thing here is to make a distinction between the paint and the paintings themselves. You can see in the second sentence that the author is talking about old oil paint unaffected by wide fluctuations in temperature and humidity. However, he changes ever so slightly in the third sentence: save money without endangering their Renaissance oil paintings.

The only option that addresses this tricky change is option D, as pointed out by komal. Option choice B is too strong, as max37274 mentioned. As a general rule, you should usually eliminate choices that contain strong words: "always", "never", "at all" etc. This rule is not valid 100% of the times, but it is valid something like 90%, so if you get stuck between two options, I would definitely eliminate the one with the strong language.

ssgmatter wrote: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.

DanaJ wrote:The key thing here is to make a distinction between the paint and the paintings themselves. You can see in the second sentence that the author is talking about old oil paint unaffected by wide fluctuations in temperature and humidity. However, he changes ever so slightly in the third sentence: save money without endangering their Renaissance oil paintings.

The only option that addresses this tricky change is option D, as pointed out by komal. Option choice B is too strong, as max37274 mentioned. As a general rule, you should usually eliminate choices that contain strong words: "always", "never", "at all" etc. This rule is not valid 100% of the times, but it is valid something like 90%, so if you get stuck between two options, I would definitely eliminate the one with the strong language.