A good movie reviewer should be able to give favorable reviews of movies that are not to his or her taste. Because movie reviewers have seen so many movies, their tastes are very different from and usually better informed than those of most moviegoers. Yet the function of movie reviewers, as opposed to film critics, is to help people determine which movies they might enjoy seeing, not to help them better appreciate movies.

Summarize Argument
The author concludes that a good movie reviewer should be able to give favorable reviews of movies that she personally may not like. This is because the purpose of movie reviewers is to help people figure out what movies they might enjoy. The unstated assumption is that to help people figure out what they might like, a movie reviewer can’t just give negative reviews based on her own personal taste.

Identify Conclusion
The conclusion is what the author thinks a good movie reviewer should be able to do: “A good movie reviewer should be able to give favorable reviews of movies that are not to his or her taste.”

A
Movie reviewers’ tastes in movies are very different from and usually better informed than those of most moviegoers.
This is part of the context. Movie reviewers have different, better tastes. But the author pivots to argue that a good reviewer should be able to set aside their personal taste and give favorable reviews to movies she might not like.
B
If a movie reviewer is good, he or she should be able to give favorable reviews of movies that are not to his or her taste.
This is an almost verbatim restatement of the conclusion.
C
The function of a movie reviewer is different from that of a film critic.
This is part of the premise.
D
Movie reviewers see many more movies than most moviegoers see.
This is part of the context.
E
The role of movie reviewers is to help people determine which movies they might enjoy seeing, not to help people better appreciate movies.
This is a premise. The author doesn’t offer anything to help prove the role of movie reviewers. Rather, he uses the claim about a movie reviewer’s role to assert what a good movie reviewer should be able to do.

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Researcher: Overhearing only one side of a cell-phone conversation diverts listeners’ attention from whatever they are doing. Hearing only part of a conversation leaves listeners constantly trying to guess what the unheard talker has just said. Listeners’ attention is also diverted because cell-phone talkers speak abnormally loudly.

Summary

Hearing only one side of a cell-phone conversation distracts a person from whatever they’re doing. Hearing only one person in a conversation results in listeners constantly trying to guess what the unheard person is saying. Cell-phone conversations distract listeners because people talking on a cell-phone are abnormally loud.

Strongly Supported Conclusions

When a person performing a task hears a cell-phone conversation, that person ends up distracted from whatever they’re doing.

A
The risk that a driver will cause an accident is increased when the driver is talking on a cell phone.

This answer is unsupported. We don’t know from the stimulus what the risk of accident is for any driver. Since we don’t know the baseline risk, we also can’t say that this risk increases.

B
When a driver hears a passenger in the driver’s vehicle talking on a cell phone, that detracts from the driver’s performance.

This answer is strongly supported. Hearing only one side of a cell-phone conversation distracts a person from whatever they’re doing. Since the driver is distracted, this detracts from their driving.

C
Overhearing one side of a conversation on a traditional telephone does not divert listeners’ attention from tasks at hand.

This answer is unsupported. The stimulus is limited to overhearing conversations being had over a cell-phone. We don’t know what the effects are from overhearing a conversation had over a traditional phone.

D
People who overhear one side of a cell-phone conversation inevitably lose track of their thoughts.

This answer is unsupported. We don’t know if these people lose track of their own thoughts, we just know that they become distracted from whatever they’re doing.

E
Conversing on a cell phone requires making more guesses about what one’s conversational partner means than other forms of conversation do.

This answer is unsupported. We don’t know what conditions are required for having a conversation via cell-phone.


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