Self-paced
Camera manufacturers typically advertise their products by citing the resolution of their cameras' lenses, the resolution of a lens being the degree of detail the lens is capable of reproducing in the image it projects onto the film. ███████████ ███████ ███████ ██ ████ ███████ ███ ██████████ ███ █████████ ████████████ ████████ █████ ███ ██████ ██████ ███ ██ █████████ ████ ████ ███████ ███ ████ ██████ ████ ███ ████ ████ ███ ████████████ ████ ██ ███████ ██ ███████████ ██ █ █████████ ██████
Stimulus Summary
Camera makers advertise by citing lens resolution, which is how much detail a lens can reproduce in the image it projects onto the film. The author concludes that the differences between cameras in lens resolution do not matter for practical photography. The reason: every modern lens already projects far more detail onto the film than any film can capture in a developed image.
Think of the lens and the film as two stages the detail has to pass through. The lens throws a very detailed image onto the film, but the film can only record so much. So the film, not the lens, sets the ceiling on how much detail ends up in the photo. Since the lens is already overshooting that ceiling, the author figures a lens with even more resolution would just overshoot it by more, with no change in the final image. That is why the author treats the differences between lenses as irrelevant in practice.
15.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Camera manufacturers ought ██ ███████████ ██ ████████ █████ █████████ █████████ ████ █████ ████████ ███████ ██████ ████ █████████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████████
The author never tells manufacturers what they ought to do. This is a recommendation about where companies should focus their efforts, and the argument makes no such suggestion. Its point is only that the differences in lens resolution do not matter for practical photography, not that manufacturers should build other qualities into their lenses instead.
b
Apart from differences ██ ███████████ █████ ██ ██ █████████ ██████████ █████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ████ ████ ████████
This gets the argument backwards. (B) says that aside from resolution, modern cameras do not differ in practical image quality, which treats resolution as the one thing that does set cameras apart. The author's claim is the opposite: it is precisely the resolution differences that do not matter in practice. The author never says everything other than resolution is identical, so this is not the main point.
c
Advertised differences among ███████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████ ████ ██ █████████ ███████ ██ ███ ████████ ████████ ███████ ██ ████████████ ██████
This restates the conclusion. The author's point is that the differences between cameras in lens resolution are irrelevant for practical photography, and (C) says the same thing in other words: advertised differences in lens resolution have no practical bearing on how good the cameras are as photographic tools.
d
In concentrating their ███████████ ██ ███ █████ ██ █████ ████████ █████████████ ███ ██████ █ ███████ █████ ███ █████████ ██ █████████ ██████████ ██ ████████
The argument says nothing about purchasers' interests or about manufacturers being mistaken about them. (D) introduces a claim about what buyers care about and whether advertising serves it, none of which appears in the stimulus. The author's conclusion is about whether lens resolution differences actually affect photography, not about how well the advertising matches what customers want.
e
Differences among photographic █████ ██ ███ ██████ ██ ██████ ████ █████████ ████ █ ████ ███████████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ █████████ █████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████ ███████
This is a comparison the author does not actually make, and it is not the conclusion in any case. The author's support is that film cannot capture all the detail the lens projects, which is why lens differences wash out. The author never concludes that differences between films have a bigger effect on image quality than differences between lenses.