OG Test 1, Section 3 - Question 8

GRE Verbal Problem Solving
1

The question states: Mathematicians have a distinctive sense of beauty: they strive to present their ideas and results in a clear and compelling fashion, dictated by ____ as well as by logic.
Options: caprice, aesthetics, obligation, methodologies, intellect.

I ended up choosing methodologies as I thought this goes very well with logic (i.e. you’re following a certain order in a method).

I saw that the correct answer is aesthetics and I can see how it also make sense but I’m not sure why methodologies is wrong. Please help!

2

You do not have any proof for the word “methodologies” in the given sentence whereas you can choose ‘aesthetics’ cuz it says clear and compelling fashion.

3

after the colon is the support and we already have logic after the blank so, what is missing out is that distinctive sense of beauty that was mentioned before the colon.

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(I thought reviving this is thread is a better option than creating a new one, but let me know if you prefer to the later.)

I also chose “methodologies”, and here’s my reasoning using math strategy:

  1. The blank is primarily supported by the “,” before it.
  2. Hence, “they strive to present… in a clear and compelling fashion” is the idea that is being supported. You could say “as well as” is the closer support word, which works too.

Here’s why I thought aesthetics is wrong (and a supposedly good trap answer):

  1. The “:” supports the idea chunk, “Mathematician’s have a distinctive sense of beauty”, with the idea chunk, “they strive to present… as well as by logic”.
  2. From there, I interpret the “sense of beauty” as about presenting mathematician’s “ideas and results in a clear and compelling fashion”. In other words, the ability to present ideas clearly and persuasively is beautiful to mathematicians.
  3. If “aesthetics” is the right answer, I would expect to something like the following:

Mathematicians have a distinctive sense of beauty: they strive to uncover elegant numerical patterns, and to present their ideas and results in a clear and compelling fashion, dictated by aesthetics as well as by logic.

Did I get some thing wrong?