PrepTest 144, Section 3, Question 13
The television network's advertisement for its new medical(53 more words not shown)
The argument relies on which(5 more words not shown)
- AMost viewers who(20 more words not shown)
- BThe advertisement that(15 more words not shown)
- CMost people who(32 more words not shown)
- DIf the advertisement(32 more words not shown)
- EMost people who(13 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
A misleading trailer might get me to watch once. It might also make sure I never come back.
Suppose an advertisement makes a medical drama look like a very different sort of show. The first episode could attract plenty of viewers who discover that it isn't what they wanted. Getting people through the door and getting people to keep watching are different measures of success.
The argument says people who arrive with false expectations are unlikely to return. That makes me ask whether the misleading advertisement actually creates those false expectations. The advertisement's content and the audience's resulting beliefs are separate things; the reasoning needs them connected.
What we’re looking for
We're asked for a required assumption. My initial expectation is a link between the misleading advertisement and the viewers' mistaken expectations. I'll keep that in mind while checking the answers against the full conclusion, which compares the network's advertisement with the one the producers preferred.
Working the answers
- A
The argument doesn't require most premiere viewers to come from this advertisement. People could find the show through friends or other publicity. The claim compares how effectively the two advertisements attract viewers likely to stay; it doesn't depend on this advertisement bringing in a majority of the whole audience.
- BCorrect
This exposes another gap in the comparison. What if the producers' preferred advertisement misrepresented the show just as badly? Then the objection to the network's advertisement would also apply to the proposed alternative.
The author relies on that alternative avoiding the defect used to criticize the network's version. Otherwise, the stated reason gives us no basis for expecting the producers' choice to attract more suitable viewers. This isn't the connection I first predicted, but it is necessary to the comparative reasoning the argument actually gives.
- C
Where the eventual loyal viewers came from is different from how well each advertisement retains the people it attracts. The network's advertisement could bring in most of the loyal viewers simply because it brings in a huge audience overall, while still doing a worse job of attracting people likely to stay. We don't need C's claim about the majority of loyal viewers.
- D
Almost all viewers don't have to return for one advertisement to work better than the other. Imagine that 5 percent of the network advertisement's viewers continue watching, compared with 10 percent of the producers' advertisement's viewers. The second advertisement does better at attracting people who stay, even though most viewers still leave. Improvement doesn't require nearly perfect retention.
- E
Whether loyal viewers usually see a show's first episode doesn't distinguish these advertisements. Both could reach people before the premiere, or loyal viewers could join later. The argument concerns which advertisement better attracts the right audience, not whether loyalty generally starts with episode one.
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