PrepTest 110, Section 2, Question 15
Camera manufacturers typically advertise their products by citing(70 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- ACamera manufacturers ought(19 more words not shown)
- BApart from differences(19 more words not shown)
- CAdvertised differences among(19 more words not shown)
- DIn concentrating their(20 more words not shown)
- EDifferences among photographic(29 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
More detail from the lens doesn't help if the film can't preserve it.
I can understand why a camera maker advertises lens resolution. A lens that reproduces more detail sounds useful. But the author says every modern lens already supplies more detail than any photographic film can reproduce in the developed image. On that account, the film sets the limit before the differences between these lenses matter.
Imagine choosing between a car capable of 150 miles per hour and one capable of 180 for a trip where you will never drive above 100. Those extra top speeds wouldn't improve that part of the trip. Both cars exceed the limit relevant to this trip. The author says the lenses similarly exceed what the film can use.
I'd still wonder about the scope of the claim. What if someone makes or views images through another process? Could lens differences matter there? We'd need information about that process. Simply displaying the same film image on a computer wouldn't, by itself, answer the stated problem that the film cannot reproduce the extra detail.
What we’re looking for
The question asks for the main point, so we don't have to resolve those possibilities. The author's point is that the advertised differences in lens resolution don't matter for practical photography. The explanation about film's limit supports that point.
Working the answers
- A
The author doesn't recommend that manufacturers change what they build into their lenses. That might be a proposal someone develops after reading the argument, but it isn't the stated point. The passage questions the practical relevance of advertised resolution differences.
- B
This says that, apart from resolution, modern cameras have no practical differences in image quality. The argument gives us no comparison of all their other qualities. Its point concerns the resolution differences themselves: they don't matter in the described use. B changes the subject of the comparison.
- CCorrect
The advertised resolution differences have no practical bearing on the cameras' relative quality as photographic tools. That's the claim the film explanation supports. The lenses can all produce more detail than film can reproduce, so a difference in their extra capability doesn't create the claimed practical advantage.
- D
The author doesn't establish what potential customers care about or whether this advertising is a business mistake. Buyers might respond enthusiastically to resolution claims even if the practical advantage is absent. An irrelevant product difference could still be effective advertising. D adds a conclusion about customers' interests that the passage never draws.
- E
Film's limited ability to reproduce detail helps explain the author's point. But E makes a further comparison between differences among films and differences among lenses. The passage doesn't measure the effects of using different films. We need the main claim about advertised lens differences, not a new claim ranking two sources of image-quality differences.
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