Information and IdeasEasy–MediumInference about violin varnish research
Information and Ideas practice question
The violins of eighteenth-century Cremona are prized for their sound, and for a century many experts credited a secret varnish. Yet chemical analyses of instruments by Stradivari and Guarneri have found varnishes much like those used by ordinary furniture makers of the time. If the varnish was unremarkable, the secret of the Cremonese sound must ____
Which choice most logically completes the text?
- A. lie somewhere other than in the varnish.Correct
- B. come from varnish recipes that are now lost.
- C. be impossible for scientists to study.
- D. depend on the age of the varnish alone.
Answer: A. lie somewhere other than in the varnish.
If the varnish turns out to be chemically ordinary, it cannot be what made the sound special — the explanation must lie elsewhere.
Why the other answers are wrong
- B. come from varnish recipes that are now lost.
- The analysis found the recipes were ordinary, not lost.
- C. be impossible for scientists to study.
- The text describes scientists successfully studying the instruments, so study is clearly possible.
- D. depend on the age of the varnish alone.
- The text rules varnish out; age of varnish is a varnish explanation.
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