Critical Reasoning

Hi,
I am having problems with identifying out of scope choices. In other words, sometimes I find a choice that seems to be out of scope, but I am not sure. This happens because sometimes there are some tricky choices that seem to be out scope, but actually they are the correct choice!

This question is a great example. Please, not only tell me WHY that choice is out scope but HOW you identified the choice as out of scope. I am more interested in the METHOD than in the reason.
Thanks!

The spacing of the four holes on a fragment of a bone flute excavated at a Neanderthal campsite is just what is required to play the third through sixth notes of the diatonic scale-the seven-note musical scale used in much of Western music since the Renaissance. Musicologists therefore hypothesize that the diatonic musical scale was developed and used thousands of years before it was adopted by Western musicians.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the hypothesis?

(A) Bone flutes were probably the only musical instrument made by Neanderthals.

(B) No musical instrument that is known to have used a diatonic scale is of an earlier date than the flute found at the Neanderthal campsite.

(C) The flute was made from a cave-bear bone and the campsite at which the flute fragment was excavated was in a cave that also contained skeletal remains of cave bears.

(D) Flutes are the simplest wind instrument that can be constructed to allow playing a diatonic scale.

(E) The cave-bear leg bone used to make the Neanderthal flute would have been long enough to make a flute capable of playing a complete diatonic scale.

Thanks!

OA: E

The spacing of the four holes on a fragment of a bone flute excavated at a Neanderthal campsite is just what is required to play the third through sixth notes of the diatonic scale-the seven-note musical scale used in much of Western music since the Renaissance. Musicologists therefore hypothesize that the diatonic musical scale was developed and used thousands of years before it was adopted by Western musicians.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the hypothesis?

(A) Bone flutes were probably the only musical instrument made by Neanderthals.

(B) No musical instrument that is known to have used a diatonic scale is of an earlier date than the flute found at the Neanderthal campsite.

(C) The flute was made from a cave-bear bone and the campsite at which the flute fragment was excavated was in a cave that also contained skeletal remains of cave bears.

(D) Flutes are the simplest wind instrument that can be constructed to allow playing a diatonic scale.

(E) The cave-bear leg bone used to make the Neanderthal flute would have been long enough to make a flute capable of playing a complete diatonic scale.

Hi Metallicafan,

The best way to approach these strengthen/support questions is to first break the argument down into its premises and conclusions.
In this case that would be the following:

Premise1: The spacing on Neanderthal Bones that have been discovered is just right to play part of a diatonic scale.
Premise2: Neanderthals predate Western musicians by thousands of years.

Conclusion: Musicologists believe that the diatonic scale was developed prior to its use by western musicians.

Then you must asses the assumptions made in this argument.

The key assumption that is relevant here is that the bone fragment could have supported that full diatonic scale.

We know that the Neanderthals were making music because they made the flute. So long as the bone is long enough to allow the construction of a full diatonic scale then the conclusion can be supported.

Hope this helps.

Mo[/quote]

Really good question - and actually you may be better off holding back on an "out of scope" strategy. As we wrote in this article (https://www.veritasprep.com/blog/2012/05 ... ous-thing/) and like you said in your post, "out of scope" and be pretty dangerous as a lot of correct answer choices are written such that the first few words don't seem directly related. "Out of scope" process of elimination often leads people to hastily eliminate the right answer on hard questions, so you'll want to stay patient.

Focusing on the gap between the premises and conclusion can be pretty helpful. In this question, similar to what Mo did, I'm looking at the summarized breakdown:

Premise: Four holes on a Neanderthal bone flute match up with 4 of the 7 notes on a diatonic music scale.
Conclusion: Therefore, the diatonic music scale was developed thousands of years before Western musicians used it.

These gaps tend to have a lot to do with precision in language. What I'm looking at specifically are the elements of precision that limit the premise's reach, such as "four holes match up" (what about the other three?). I'm also looking for specific language in the conclusion that isn't fully supported, such as "thousands of years before it was adopted" (just how far back does this fragment date?). With that in mind, I'm looking at the answer choices for something that approaches either:

*The bone flute has elements consistent with the rest of the 7-note scale
*There's additional evidence dating that bone flute back thousands of years

And choice E hits on that first point, so that's why it's correct.

metallicafan wrote:Hi,
I am having problems with identifying out of scope choices. In other words, sometimes I find a choice that seems to be out of scope, but I am not sure. This happens because sometimes there are some tricky choices that seem to be out scope, but actually they are the correct choice!

This question is a great example. Please, not only tell me WHY that choice is out scope but HOW you identified the choice as out of scope. I am more interested in the METHOD than in the reason.
Thanks!

The spacing of the four holes on a fragment of a bone flute excavated at a Neanderthal campsite is just what is required to play the third through sixth notes of the diatonic scale-the seven-note musical scale used in much of Western music since the Renaissance. Musicologists therefore hypothesize that the diatonic musical scale was developed and used thousands of years before it was adopted by Western musicians.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the hypothesis?

(A) Bone flutes were probably the only musical instrument made by Neanderthals.

(B) No musical instrument that is known to have used a diatonic scale is of an earlier date than the flute found at the Neanderthal campsite.

(C) The flute was made from a cave-bear bone and the campsite at which the flute fragment was excavated was in a cave that also contained skeletal remains of cave bears.

(D) Flutes are the simplest wind instrument that can be constructed to allow playing a diatonic scale.

(E) The cave-bear leg bone used to make the Neanderthal flute would have been long enough to make a flute capable of playing a complete diatonic scale.

Thanks!

OA: E

This is a great question!

A bone flute with holes that could possibly be used to play the diatonic scales was excavated at a Neanderthal campsite. Therefore, musicologists hypothesize that this scale may have been developed long before it was adopted by Western musicians.

Our job is to identify the option that strengthens this hypothesis.

Let us now look at the choices one by one:
A: The problem with A is the use of 'only' - what does it matter whether the flute is the only instrument to use this scale or it is one of many? This does not affect our conclusion about the origin of the diatonic scale.

This is a strengthen question - so if we negate the right answer choice, it must weaken the argument. Let us try this with B since it seems to be a likely answer choice.
B says: No musical instrument that is known to have used a diatonic scale is of an earlier date than the flute found at the Neanderthal campsite.

Upon negation, B' says:The bone flute is not the first ever diatonic musical instrument. i.e. other earlier musical instruments with the diatonic scale have been discovered. But these could still be dated years before the scale was used by Western musicians. Thus, negation of this choice does not weaken the argument. Hence, this choice is incorrect.

C: This is a classic 'So what?' answer choice - so what if the remains of cave bears were also found in the same cave? Does it affect the conclusion about the origin of the diatonic scale?

D: This is another 'So what?' answer choice - ask yourself: Does it matter to us whether the flute is the simplest instrument that uses the diatonic scale? No!

The excavated bone flute is only a fragment -the spacing of 4 holes on it is ideal for a 7-note diatonic musical scale; however, the only way to ascertain this is to have the entire bone flute, in which all the holes are present.

Negation of option E says that the cave bear bone from which this flute was made could not have been long enough to make a full flute that could play the diatonic scale. This automatically means that the excavated bone flute did not use the diatonic scale. Thus, negation weakens the argument. Therefore, E is the right answer.

Hope the thought process is clear.

metallicafan wrote:Hi,
I am having problems with identifying out of scope choices. In other words, sometimes I find a choice that seems to be out of scope, but I am not sure. This happens because sometimes there are some tricky choices that seem to be out scope, but actually they are the correct choice!

This question is a great example. Please, not only tell me WHY that choice is out scope but HOW you identified the choice as out of scope. I am more interested in the METHOD than in the reason.
Thanks!

The spacing of the four holes on a fragment of a bone flute excavated at a Neanderthal campsite is just what is required to play the third through sixth notes of the diatonic scale-the seven-note musical scale used in much of Western music since the Renaissance. Musicologists therefore hypothesize that the diatonic musical scale was developed and used thousands of years before it was adopted by Western musicians.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the hypothesis?

(A) Bone flutes were probably the only musical instrument made by Neanderthals.

(B) No musical instrument that is known to have used a diatonic scale is of an earlier date than the flute found at the Neanderthal campsite.

(C) The flute was made from a cave-bear bone and the campsite at which the flute fragment was excavated was in a cave that also contained skeletal remains of cave bears.

(D) Flutes are the simplest wind instrument that can be constructed to allow playing a diatonic scale.

(E) The cave-bear leg bone used to make the Neanderthal flute would have been long enough to make a flute capable of playing a complete diatonic scale.

Thanks!

OA: E

Virtually all strengthen/weaken/assumption passages LINK one idea to another:
A causes B.
If A happens, B will happen.
What is true for A must also be true for B.
A is sufficient to prove B.
Without A, there can't be B.
Since A and B have been observed together, there must be a connection between A and B.

In each case, the assumption is essentially the same:
A is LINKED to B.

The trick is to identify the LINK that the argument is trying to establish.
The passage above links the BONE FRAGMENT to the DIATONIC SCALE.
If this link is not valid -- if the bone fragment was NOT used to play the diatonic scale -- then the argument cannot conclude that the diatonic scale was developed and used thousands of years before it was adopted by Western musicians.

To support the conclusion, the correct answer will provide NEW INFORMATION that strengthens the link between the bone fragment and the diatonic scale.
Answer choice E:
The cave-bear LEG BONE used to make the Neanderthal flute would have been long enough to make a flute capable of playing a complete DIATONIC SCALE.
This NEW INFORMATION clearly strengthens the LINK between the BONE FRAGMENT and the DIATONIC SCALE.

The correct answer is E.

Hi Verbal Experts (GMATGuruNY/David@VeritasPrep/lunarpower/Others),
Could you please let me know what is the EXACT ISSUE with option B ? Why it's wrong ?

I guess, if it's found that there were musical instruments that existed before Neanderthal FLUTE and used a diatonic scale, then the conclusion gets affected that diatonic musical scale was developed and used thousands of years ago (by Neanderthal). Isn't it ?

If prior to Neanderthal FLUTE, any other musical instrument played diatonic scale used in much of Western music then how we can say that Neanderthal FLUTE ACTUALLY developed diatonic scale ?

Please help!

HI - could any Verbal Experts on the forum please help me clarify my concerns stated above ?

Would much appreciate your feedback and cooperation.Thanks in advance!

RBBmba@2014 wrote:Hi Verbal Experts (GMATGuruNY/David@VeritasPrep/lunarpower/Others),
Could you please let me know what is the EXACT ISSUE with option B ? Why it's wrong ?

I guess, if it's found that there were musical instruments that existed before Neanderthal FLUTE and used a diatonic scale, then the conclusion gets affected that diatonic musical scale was developed and used thousands of years ago (by Neanderthal). Isn't it ?

If anything, the information in B -- that no musical instrument older than the flute is known to have used a diatonic scale -- WEAKENS the conclusion that the diatonic scale was developed thousands of years before its adoption by Western musicians.
Eliminate B.

If prior to Neanderthal FLUTE, any other musical instrument played diatonic scale used in much of Western music then how we can say that Neanderthal FLUTE ACTUALLY developed diatonic scale ?

Please help!

DO NOT MAKE STUFF UP.
Nowhere does the passage state or imply that the flute was used to DEVELOP the diatonic scale.
The passage states merely that the four holes of the flute were sufficient to PLAY the third through sixth notes of the diatonic scale, and it uses this information to conclude that the diatonic scale was developed -- perhaps by the Neanderthals, perhaps by someone else -- thousand of years before its adoption by Western musicians.

GMATGuruNY wrote:If anything, the information in B -- that no musical instrument older than the flute is known to have used a diatonic scale -- WEAKENS the conclusion that the diatonic scale was developed thousands of years before its adoption by Western musicians.
Eliminate B.

Not able to get it how Option B WEAKENS the conclusion ? Could you please help ?

GMATGuruNY wrote:

If prior to Neanderthal FLUTE, any other musical instrument played diatonic scale used in much of Western music then how we can say that Neanderthal FLUTE ACTUALLY developed diatonic scale ?

Please help!

DO NOT MAKE STUFF UP.
Nowhere does the passage state or imply that the flute was used to DEVELOP the diatonic scale.
The passage states merely that the four holes of the flute were sufficient to PLAY the third through sixth notes of the diatonic scale, and it uses this information to conclude that the diatonic scale was developed -- perhaps by the Neanderthals, perhaps by someone else -- thousand of years before its adoption by Western musicians.

Got it.

Just a quick question -- as "thousands of years" is NOT a SPECIFIC time frame, so one can construe that it could be any group who developed the musical scale - be it Neanderthals or be it some other community prior to Neanderthals. Right ?

And thus the conclusion still holds true.

Is my above understanding correct ?