Screening Nonfiction Films

Answer choices

1. A

   Correct54% picked this

   Screenings that consist entirely of early nonfiction films are poorly conceived because they ignore the context 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%
2. B

   Wrong Emphasis37% picked this

   The practices that are best suited to exhibiting works in an artistic medium like painting are not well

   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.

   37%
3. C

   Unsupported: not enough recognition0% picked this

   Early nonfiction films have not received the critical recognition that

   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%
4. D

   Out of Scope: contemporary cinema4% picked this

   The artistic goals of early nonfiction films are different in many major respects from the

   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%
5. E

   Wrong Emphasis: restorations5% picked this

   For modern audiences to properly experience early nonfiction films, film archivists must produce restorations of those films that

   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%