PrepTest 135, Section 4, Question 17
Watching music videos from the 1970s would give(41 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(13 more words not shown)
- AOur view of(29 more words not shown)
- BOur memory of(21 more words not shown)
- CFuture generations' understanding(29 more words not shown)
- DOur understanding of(22 more words not shown)
- EOur notion of(32 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Who was making those videos?
If a new art form mainly attracted cutting-edge musicians, its videos could give us a distorted picture of music as a whole. We could accurately notice lots of synthesizer pop and punk in the videos and still be wrong to think those styles dominated everything people were listening to.
Imagine visiting a country-music bar and hearing country music all evening. That wouldn't show that the whole country mainly listens to country music. You chose a place where that taste is especially concentrated.
What we’re looking for
The parallel should make the same move: warn that judging a broad field by one selective part of it will distort our understanding, because a particular type of participant is especially drawn to that part. We want the biased source and the misleading view of the larger field, not merely another argument about the past.
Working the answers
- A
This is close because the surviving literature is a selected portion of the original literature. But the conclusion is much broader: our view can never be accurate. The original warns against relying on music videos; it doesn't say an accurate view is impossible using other evidence. Also, A's selection comes from later copyists preserving favored works, rather than a particular kind of creator being attracted to a medium. C preserves both the limited warning and that selection process more closely.
- B
This argues that abundant reruns leave little room to improve our memory. It treats the available material as providing a strong picture, rather than a distorted one. It also doesn't identify a particular type of creator disproportionately represented in the available shows.
- CCorrect
CD-ROM publications correspond to music videos: they are the narrow source someone might use to judge a much broader field. Publishers interested in computer games correspond to the cutting-edge musicians: they are especially drawn to this format. Publishing trends as a whole correspond to music as a whole. In both arguments, relying on that selective medium would distort the broad picture.
- D
This says our understanding is incomplete because films deteriorated. Missing information isn't necessarily information skewed toward one particular kind of filmmaker. D gives a loss-of-material explanation for incompleteness; the original identifies selective participation in a medium as the reason for a misleading impression.
- E
The deliberate selection of outrageous outfits supplies a possible source of bias. But the conclusion runs the other way: the author still predicts an accurate view of fashion. The original warns that the selected material produces a misleading view. Matching the selection problem while reversing the conclusion doesn't match the reasoning.
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