Question

Jane: Professor Harper’s ideas for modifying the design of guitars are of no value because there is no general agreement among musicians as to what a guitar should sound like and, consequently, no widely accepted basis for evaluating the merits of a guitar’s sound.

Mark: What’s more, Harper’s ideas have had enough time to be adopted if they really resulted in superior sound. It took only ten years for the Torres design for guitars to be almost universally adopted because of the improvement it makes in tonal quality. Which one of the following most accurately describes the relationship between Jane’s argument and Mark’s argument?


A. Mark’s argument shows how a weakness in Jane’s argument can be overcome.

B. Mark’s argument has a premise in common with Jane’s argument.

C. Mark and Jane use similar techniques to argue for different conclusions.

D. Mark’s argument restates Jane’s argument in other terms.

E. Mark’s argument and Jane’s argument are based on conflicting suppositions.

Answer 1

The relationship between Jane's and Mark's arguments reflects conflicting suppositions about how to determine the value of changes to guitar design, with Jane focused on the subjective nature of timbre and the lack of standards, and Mark emphasizing the potential for widespread adoption when an improvement is clear.

Step-by-step explanation:

The relationship between Jane’s argument and Mark’s argument is best described as based on conflicting suppositions. Jane argues that Professor Harper's ideas for modifying the design of guitars are of no value due to the lack of a general consensus on what a guitar should sound like. Mark, on the other hand, implies that if Harper's ideas were truly valuable, they would have been widely adopted by now, much like the Torres design was due to its superior tonal quality.

Jane's perspective on the subjective nature of timbre and the lack of a universally accepted standard for evaluating guitar sound. Mark counters with an example showing that when a clear improvement in sound quality is evident, consensus among musicians can swiftly lead to widespread adoption of a new design. Thus, the core issue in their disagreement lies in how to evaluate the success or failure of a guitar's design changes based on musicians' acceptance.