PrepTest 130, Section 3, Question 13
Journalists sometimes use historical photographs to illustrate articles(53 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(12 more words not shown)
- AAny practice by(18 more words not shown)
- BIf the work(28 more words not shown)
- CIf a journalistic(27 more words not shown)
- DNo article about(22 more words not shown)
- EIf journalists believe(18 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
An old photograph can give readers a way to compare past and present. Imagine an article about today's New York skyline using a photograph from a century ago. The picture might draw attention to what looks familiar, while the current situation has important features of its own.
The author says the practice described overstates the similarities and denies the current events' individual significance. Let's take that as the starting point. The conclusion goes further: the practice distorts public understanding by presenting current events as mere repetitions of historical incidents.
What we’re looking for
How do we get from overlooking an event's individual significance to that particular distortion? Those descriptions aren't automatically interchangeable. I'd expect a rule connecting the denial of individual significance with distorted understanding and the presentation of events as mere repetitions. For this sufficient-assumption question, the connection needs to establish the full conclusion from a premise we actually have.
Working the answers
- A
This goes from presenting events as mere repetitions to overstating similarities. We already know the practice overstates similarities; we need to establish the distortion and the mere-repetition presentation. A rule telling us what follows from that presentation doesn't show that it occurs here.
- BCorrect
This takes a more direct route than the connection I expected. The author already says that using historical photographs in this manner overstates similarities between past and present. B says that whenever a journalist's work does that, it distorts public understanding by presenting current events as mere repetitions of historical incidents. That delivers the entire conclusion from an established premise. We don't need an additional rule about individual significance when this earlier premise already gets us there.
- C
This starts by assuming that the practice distorts public understanding, which is what we need to establish. It then tells us what follows from that assumption, rather than giving a route to it. It also shifts from the individual significance of current events to the individual significance of articles about them. Those aren't the same object of the claimed denial.
- D
This makes historical photographs necessary for an article to treat an event as a mere repetition. Having a required ingredient doesn't guarantee the result. The article could use such photographs without treating the event that way under this rule. D also doesn't establish the distortion of public understanding.
- E
This concerns what journalists believe. The premises concern their use of photographs and the way that practice portrays events; they don't tell us what the journalists personally believe about repetition in history. Even though E leads to distorted public understanding, we haven't established the condition needed to apply it.
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