PrepTest 115, Section 4, Question 22
Drama critic: Audiences will enjoy Warner's latest play,(44 more words not shown)
Each of the following, if(5 more words not shown)
- AGenerally, audiences enjoy(6 more words not shown)
- BThe company staging(9 more words not shown)
- CInsiders with the(10 more words not shown)
- DThe plot of(13 more words not shown)
- EAudiences usually find(4 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Great acting doesn't automatically make a play enjoyable. What if the actors are wonderful but the play is boring? I could watch someone give a convincing performance of painting a wall and still have no interest in watching it.
The critic tells us that the actors have intense chemistry and that the child convincingly expresses guilt and despair. I can accept those as reasons to praise the acting while still asking whether audiences will enjoy the experience. Perhaps the play drags on too long. Perhaps an audience can't understand the language. Those are possible concerns, not facts we've been given about this production.
What we’re looking for
This is a weaken EXCEPT question. Four choices offer reasons to question the critic's prediction; we want the one that doesn't. Keep the gap in view: the quality of the acting isn't the only thing that might affect enjoyment. We also need to distinguish a reason for doubt from proof that everyone will dislike the play.
Working the answers
- A
The family falling apart, together with the guilt and despair, gives us reason to read this as a tragic story. If audiences tend to find tragedies upsetting, that gives us a concern about their reaction despite the acting. The passage doesn't formally label the play a tragedy, and upsetting art can still be enjoyed, so A isn't a decisive refutation. But it bears on the emotional experience the critic expects audiences to enjoy.
- B
An unbroken history of dull productions gives us a reason to question the company's next production. This play could be an exception, and superb acting needn't be the same as an engaging production overall. Still, that track record offers grounds for doubt about the prediction. It is more than an unrelated detail about the company.
- C
This provides a contrary assessment of the performance the critic singles out. A portrayal could convincingly capture guilt yet still be unexciting to watch. The insiders' judgment doesn't prove the performance bad, but it challenges the critic's reliance on that performance as a reason to expect enjoyment.
- DCorrect
Similar to what—and was that enjoyable? We aren't told that Warner's other plots were bad or that audiences dislike similar plots. A familiar kind of story could still be very enjoyable.
D supplies a resemblance without an evaluation. We would have to add a fact, such as audiences being tired of these plots, to turn it into a reason to doubt the critic. As written, it leaves the prediction intact.
- E
This suggests that critics' assessments may be a poor guide to how audiences respond. That makes this critic's praise a less convincing basis for predicting audience enjoyment. Audiences' distrust doesn't establish that this particular critic is wrong, and it doesn't prove the play unenjoyable. But it raises a concern about relying on the review for this prediction. D supplies no comparable concern; it reports similarity without saying why the similarity would count against enjoyment.
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