Which one of the following, if true, would most strengthen Lessing's contention that a painting can display aesthetic...

Skylar on September 8, 2019

@Adri I assume you're asking about #5? You've done a good job at identiying the confusing part of this question- which is what makes it a paradox. The paradox is this: Although smoking has decreased, home fires (which are usually caused by smoking in bed) have not. This doesn't make sense, so normally we would need to look for an answer choice that provides additoinal information to connect the two pieces. However, because this is a Paradox Bizarro question, we are looking for the one answer choice that does NOT resolve the paradox by providing a possible explanation.

Answer choice C, however, does resolve the paradox. It is saying that although smoking overall has decreased, there has not been a decrease in smoking among heavy smokers who smoke in bed. In other words, the decrease in smoking overall may be attributed to people who only smoke socially, for example. In this case, smoking would statistically decrease but smoking in bed would remain unchanged, thereby the number of house fires would remain unchanged. Becuase this makes sense and resolves the paradox, C is incorrect. Remember, this is a Bizarro question so we are looking for the one answer choice that does not resolve the paradox (note the word "EXCEPT" in the question).

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any additional questions!