A finding question about competing causes tests whether new evidence supports one cause over another. Read the argument and put its claim in a few words, including the cause it favors and the cause it rejects. Ask what result would tell the two causes apart, because evidence that fits both can't settle the argument. Then check how strongly the finding supports one cause and weakens the other. A finding that only shares the topic may leave the cause unexplained.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read Ribeiro's argument in the last sentence and identify both explanations for the revision.
- Hint 2
What would you expect to see if Varga's style had changed generally? Think about how widely the change would apply.
- Hint 3
For each finding, ask whether both explanations could account for it. Evidence that fits both explanations won't tell you which one caused the revision.
Step-by-step
Separate the two possible causes
Step 1Split Ribeiro's argument
Ribeiro calls the revision a targeted response to the hall's tendency to blur sustained, overlapping sounds, not evidence of a general change in Varga's compositional style. What must a supporting finding show? It must support both parts of her argument: the hall's blurred sound prompted the rewrite, and the rewrite wasn't part of a wider style change.
- Step 2
Predict evidence that separates the causes
The final score, dated July follows the June rehearsal, so a response to the hall is possible. Would evidence of blur alone show whether Varga was responding to the hall or changing his style? No, because the hall could blur the music even if Varga was changing his style. A wider style change should also affect comparable music elsewhere, so we'd need evidence about Varga's choices beyond this hall at the same time.
- Step 3
Set aside findings that miss a part
The request to play more softly doesn't link the revision to blur or address Varga's wider style. Works that increasingly used short brass chords point toward the general style change Ribeiro rejects. The private outline dated February 1911 shows an earlier plan for brass chords, not a response to what Varga heard at the June rehearsal.
- Step 4
Test the finding against both parts
The acoustical reconstruction shows the hall's tendency to blur sustained, overlapping sounds: the lines became indistinct there but stayed clear elsewhere. Does it also argue against a general style change? Varga kept comparable lines unchanged in the other venue that same summer, so the different treatment follows the hall's sound, not a wider shift in style. Choice B.