Maria: Popular music is bad art because it greatly exaggerates the role love plays in everyday life and thereby fail...

thom on November 27, 2019

Difference between C and D

Could you explain how C is different from D, as Maria pointed that Popular music failed to represent reality? Thank you

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BenMingov on November 27, 2019

Hi Thom, thanks for the question!

We are trying to find the answer choice that will evoke the response "yes" from one speaker and "no" from another. In other words, one speaker will agree and the other will disagree.

The point of disagreement between the speakers will typically be readily identifiable within the stimulus.

Maria: Popular music is bad art because ... it fails to represent reality accurately.

Theo: Popular music is not supposed to reflect reality.

Answer choice D states the exact point of disagreement between the two speakers, namely that it isn't necessary for art to reflect reality in order to be good.

Answer choice C differs in that it states that "art should always represent reality as it could be, not as it is". There are two issues with this statement as a point of disagreement resulting from the stimulus.

1) We don't know whether they would disagree whether art should "always" represent reality. This is strong language and something we should note. Theo seems to disagree with this, but we do not know Maria's stance.

2) Additionally, we don't know based on the stimulus that they disagree about what art "should" do. They simply discuss what constitutes good/bad art, not what it should do.

This question tests your sensitivity to tone. Words like "always" and "should" do need extra consideration when we run into them. We need to make sure they apply accurately, otherwise these words are too extreme.

I hope this helped, please let me know if you have any other questions.

Irina on November 27, 2019

@thom,

The argument is about what constitutes good versus bad art, there is no discussion regarding what all art should or should not represent as (C) suggests. Maria argues that art that fails to represent reality is bad art, whereas Theo disagrees with this perspective but neither of them are saying that art should represent reality "as it could be."