PrepTest 141, Section 1, Question 13

Working the answers

• A

  We aren't told how interested people were in photographs of contemporary life. Cameron's choice to stage historical or fictional scenes doesn't establish a general lack of interest in other subjects.

• B

  One photographer's amateur-looking props tell us neither the wealth of photographers generally nor how many were amateurs. Don't turn the description of this work into a demographic claim about the whole profession.

• C

  The pictures contain people acting as characters, but that doesn't establish a growing fashion for publicity portraits of actors. These are staged scenes, not evidence about a publicity trend.

• D

  Cameron's use of relatives, housemaids, and village children doesn't prove professional models were unavailable. Choosing ordinary acquaintances and having no professional alternatives are different claims.

• E
  Correct

  The effort to stay still and the description of the sitting as an ordeal suggest that posing had to last for a substantial time. The blurred faces reinforce the difficulty of maintaining a pose. Together, those details provide a concrete basis for the inference; we don't need outside knowledge about Victorian cameras.