Solutions

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Question

A medieval manuscript called L contains all eighteen extant tragedies by the Greek playwright Euripides. Of these, ten called the “select plays,” are accompanied in L by ancient commentaries and also appear in other medieval manuscripts; this group includes some of Euripides’ best-known works, including the Medea. The other eight, which appear in alphabetical order, without commentary. The Electra is one of the alphabetical.

Which of the following can be reliably concluded on the basis of the Statements given?


 

Option A:

Only Euripides’ best-known works are accompanied by ancient commentaries in extant medieval manuscripts.

Option B:

The select plays are accompanied by ancient commentaries because they were the best known of Euripides’ works.

Option C:

No commentaries were written about Euripides’ Electra in ancient times.

Option D:

Euripides’ Medea never appears in medieval manuscripts unaccompanied by ancient commentary.

Option E:

Euripides’ Electra does not appear accompanied by a commentary in any extant medieval manuscript.

Difficulty Level

Hard

Solution

Option E is the correct answer.


Option Analysis

Question type: Inference based question 

Summary of the argument: Since this is an inference question, it is best to go to the options and find an option 100% true based on the facts that are given in the argument.  

 

A) The one with commentaries includes the best-known works. But ONLY the best-known works are not with commentaries. This is an extreme answer choice.  

B) The commentaries were NOT because they were the best work.  

C) We don’t know whether the commentaries were written.  

D) Extreme answer choices.  

E) Correct Answer  


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