#26 - Specific Reference, Weaken

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (D).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[blade21cn]

I'm down to (A) and (D) and thought there are quite similar. Upon checking their difference, I chose (D) because it's a "most" statement and (A) is a "some" statement and thought "most" would weaken more than "some." Is that valid rationale? Thanks!

[Robert Carroll]

blade,

I think that analysis of the difference between the two answers is good. When answer choice (A) says that "many" executives behave a certain way, the author could rightly say "So what? Many people may be like that, but the majority aren't, so there's a risk of having the profit motive conflict with the production of good movies." In answer choice (D), though, the author can't be so dismissive - if MOST execs are interesting in making movies engaging, then the danger the author was talking about is, at worst, a danger only among a minority of executives. That's why answer choice (D) weakens the argument and answer choice (A) does not.

Robert Carroll

[ashpine17]

I had C and D as contenders and felt that both weakened...how do I distinguish between the two.

[ashpine17]

I thought C wweakened the potion of the paragrah that said the issue from this relationship between the media and hollywood is that studio execs are getting more say instead of directors etc

[Jeff Wren]

Hi ashpine,

The key to deciding between Answers C and D is to focus on the author's argument in the lines cited in the question, especially in the context of the paragraph overall and even the entire passage overall.

One helpful trick is to focus on the first sentence of the paragraph which states what this paragraph is about. According to the author, the problem with the media/film cross industry is that it is affecting the creation of the films themselves and not in a good way. Specifically, the author believes that the danger is that this will cause movies to fail to satisfy the audience's desire to have an engaging experience watching the film (lines 43-47).

This is the central idea in the paragraph and for the entire passage, that this mass-media promotion of films creates films that do not provide satisfying experiences for the audience. (Notice how this idea also appears in the correct answers to questions 22 and 23.)

With this idea in mind, let's look at Answer D. This answer directly attacks the author's main concern by stating that most of the studio executives' decisions do add to the films ability to satisfy moviegoers emotionally. What this is basically saying is that there is no conflict and that the decisions currently being made to increase profit are still creating emotionally satisfying movies just as they used to be.

This answer is almost implying that today's movies are just as good and emotionally satisfying as they ever were and the author's argument is garbage!

Answer C, on the other hand, just states that most writers, producers, and directors continue to have a say in the decisions despite the influence of studio executives.

First, even if the writers, producers, and directors still have "a say," that doesn't necessarily mean that they have as much creative control as they previously did, which means that it is still possible that the mass media has changed movies to be less satisfying for audiences, the author's main concern.

Also, while the author does mention in the passage that studio executives are making more of the choices of subject matter and actors than previously (lines 37-39) as an example of this change to how movies are being made, this specific change only matters to the author's larger argument (about movies no longer being as emotionally satisfying) if the executives are actually making choices that affect the quality and emotional satisfaction of the film. For example, an executive may choose a famous movie star for a role because of that star's popularity/box office draw, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the star can't deliver an excellent performance in the film. (This idea gets us back to Answer D.)

[ashpine17]

It looks like one problem I had with this question was identifying which part of the paragraph was the argument. Is the portion about reducing the emotional aspect of the movies the argument? Not the part about having choices being made more often by the execs? Or are both arguments in this paragraph?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi ashpine,

The argument in the final paragraph is that the mass media entertainment industry is affecting the creation of films in a negative way, specifically by reducing the emotional impact of the movies themselves.

Everything else in this paragraph, including the part about choices being made more often by executives, is there to support that argument. This part about executives is not a separate argument; it is support for the argument about how mass media is making movies less emotionally satisfying.

There are a few ways to determine how the logic flows in the argument.

First, in reading comp, the first sentence of each paragraph usually lays out what the paragraph is about. Now, in this paragraph, the first sentence doesn't get into specifics of how the movies will be affected, but by using the word "problem" (line 35), we already know that this change will be negative. Later in the paragraph, the author specifies the negative result of making movies that are less emotionally satisfying.

Second, just step back and ask yourself, what does the author really care about? Why did the author write this passage? Does the author really care about the fact that executives are making more decisions in and of itself, or is the problem that the executives making more decisions is an example of how and why the creation of the movies is being negatively impacted by making them less emotionally satisfying? The answer is the latter. The part about executives is included as support for the author's main argument, both in the paragraph and in the passage as a whole.