Reading Comprehension

PT155 · S3 · P1 · Q1 Screening Nonfiction Films

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The following passage is adapted from a 2001 article by a film historian.

Topic

Retrospectives for early nonfiction films

Framework

Challenge a Position, Problem / Solution

Main Point

Early nonfiction films shouldn't be shown together in retrospectives since it will not cast them in their best light and grouping them together creates an exhibition that is inauthentic compared to how they were viewed in their day.

Summary

P1 - Background Info Leading into the Problem

This paragraph discusses the goal of art exhibitions to "collect the similar" and explains how in film that manifests as 'a retrospective'. It ends with one of our big 4 Pivot words (but, yet, however, recently) suggesting that notable retrospectives on early nonfiction films will be our primary topic.

P2 - Description of the Problem

The author begins with another big 4 Pivot word, "But", and he even uses the first-person pronoun "I". This first sentence of the 2nd paragraph appears to be our thesis: collecting the similar is not a great idea for early nonfiction films. He explains why doing so will result in a boring event that doesn't resemble the way these films would have been presented in their time.

P3 - Author's Criticizes the Irony of the Problem

This paragraph establishes that the people responsible for the problem are deeply concerned with authenticity when it comes to restoring the films themselves, but should be more concerned with authenticity when it comes to putting on retrospectives that better resemble the carefully curated night of mixed programming, of which these early nonfiction films would have been a part.

1.

Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage?

  1. Correct

    Screenings that consist entirely of

    Why this is right

    The main clause and the reason why seem on point. The author said that screenings consisting of all early nonfiction films are "often inappropriate". The 2nd and 3rd paragraphs explained that the problem with this plan is that these films were just a small part of a carefully curated mixed night of programming, so since our goal is authenticity we should be presenting them the same way. In the middle of the final paragraph, the author says "films are presented in an inauthentic setting, utterly shorn of the program that once gave these films life and context".

    Skill tested: Main Point · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    54% picked this

  2. The practices that are best

    Wrong Emphasis

    Wrong Emphasis: painting Too Broad: cinematic works We would never expect the introductory lead-in about other realms of art to take center stage in this main point passage. The central topic here was retrospective film screenings of early nonfiction films. This answer makes the central topic out to be "the practices that are best suited to exhibiting works in a medium like painting". Also, the author is only saying that these practices are not well suited for exhibiting "early nonfiction films", not for any cinematic work.

    36% picked this

  3. Early nonfiction films have not

    Unsupported: not enough recognition

    The author isn't writing this to say, "Critics, you don't appreciate these early nonfiction films enough". He's writing this to say, "Exhibitionists, you should screen these films as part of a mixed night of programming, like their original context, not as a big ol' stack of the same films." We might make a supportable inference that "IF the author is right, that they're exhibiting these films in a way that doesn't do them justice, THEN these films aren't going to be appreciated/recognized as much as they should be", but the author didn't say that. Also, the author acknowledges that these retrospectives he's criticizing may be "useful for historians and academics", so the author might actually think that critics are doing fine at appreciating these old films but that normal people aren't going to appreciate them unless the style of exhibiting them is improved.

    0% picked this

  4. The artistic goals of early

    Out of Scope: contemporary cinema

    Contemporary cinema was never even mentioned in the passage, so we definitely wouldn't want or expect to see it in our correct main point answer.

    4% picked this

  5. For modern audiences to properly

    Wrong Emphasis: restorations

    In the 3rd paragraph, the author was explaining that film nerds are good at authenticity when it comes to restorations, which is why it's ironic that they're so bad/neglectful at authenticity when it comes to exhibitions.

    5% picked this

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