Self-study
Film historians have made two major criticisms of Depression-era filmmakers: first, that they were too uncritical of the economic status quo; and second, that they self-indulgently created films reflecting their own dreams and desires. ████████ █████ ██████████ ████ █████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███████ ███ ██ ████ ████████ ████ █████ █████████ ████ ██████ ██ █ █████ █ ██████ ██ ███████ █████ ███████ ██████ ███ ██ ████ █ ████ ██ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ██████ █████████ ██████ ██ █████████
Summary
Film historians’ criticism about Depression-era filmmakers, that the filmmakers self-indulgently created films reflecting their own dreams and desires, can’t be accurate. Why? These filmmakers gave their audiences what they wanted most in a film: a chance to imagine being wealthy enough not to have to worry.
Missing Connection
The author concludes that the film historians’ criticism must be inaccurate. As a premise, the author says that the filmmakers provided what their audiences most wanted in a film: the chance to imagine being wealthy enough to not have a care in the world.
How to get from the premise to the conclusion? The author’s conclusion follows logically if we assume that when filmmakers give their audiences what they want most in a film, the filmmaker couldn’t have made the movie self-indulgently.
9.
The conclusion of the argument ███████ █████████ ██ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ████████
a
To avoid self-indulgence, ██████████ ██████ ████ █ ████████ ██████ ██████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██████ ███ ██████ █████ █████████ ██ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ████████████
This is about what filmmakers “should” do. The argument isn’t concerned with what filmmakers should do. (A) is irrelevant.
b
It is unjustified ██ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ █████ ██████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████ ████
This is about what’s not justified to demand of a filmmaker. The argument never discusses what is or isn’t justified to demand of filmmakers. (B) is irrelevant.
c
The people who █████████ ████ ██ ██████ ██████ ███ ██████████ ████ █████ ██████ ██ ████ ████ ████ █████████ ████ ███ ████████ ██████ ████
The correct answer choice must explain why the film historians’ critique was inaccurate, but (C) only talks about the people who went to movies. (C) has nothing to do with why the film historians’ critique can’t be accurate.
d
Depression-era filmmakers who ███ ███ ████ █████ ███ ██████ █████ ███ ████ ███████ ████████ ███████ ██████ ████████████ ████████ ███ █████████ ███████
The argument talks about Depression-era filmmakers who made movies with an eye to profit. (D) only discusses filmmakers who didn’t make films for profit, so (D) isn’t relevant to the argument.
e
It cannot be ██████████████ ███ █ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ████████ ████ ██ ████ ██████
According to the argument’s premise, we know that Depression-era filmmakers gave their audiences what they most wanted in films. If (E) is true, then the Depression-era filmmakers couldn’t have created their films self-indulgently, confirming the argument’s conclusion.