PrepTest 152, Section 3, Question 13
Film scholar David Bordwell refers to the years(453 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(22 more words not shown)
- Aevidence that reviewers(12 more words not shown)
- Bevidence that audiences(13 more words not shown)
- Cevidence that viewers(24 more words not shown)
- Devidence that audience(16 more words not shown)
- Eevidence that the(20 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Bordwell's defense depends on expectations. Musicals developed from theater, and their conventions prepare viewers for an alternation between story and performance. He then uses that preparation to explain why viewers accept the structure as realistic.
What we’re looking for
A useful challenge would show that the relevant familiarity doesn't change the viewing experience. If people with and without prior exposure experience the films alike, the appeal to learned expectations does less to explain their response.
Working the answers
- A
Reviewers could praise an unrealistic element because it is enjoyable or artistically impressive. That judgment doesn't test whether prior familiarity prepares viewers to experience the structure differently. Liking a film and accepting its conventions as realistic are separate questions.
- B
Going primarily for the performances is consistent with expecting a musical to interrupt its story. It doesn't challenge Bordwell's account of prepared audiences. Enjoyment alone also wouldn't prove his larger claim about realism.
- CCorrect
If prior exposure makes no difference to how people experience the films, Bordwell's appeal to acquired expectations loses explanatory force. The same experience would occur without the relevant familiarity. This attacks the connection between knowing the conventions and responding to the film in the way he describes.
- D
Attention span is not the proposed link. We need evidence about expectations and the experience of realism, not simply how long viewers can concentrate when a genre is unfamiliar.
- E
Stylistic similarity between earlier stage musicals and film musicals could help explain how familiar conventions carry over. That would fit Bordwell's defense rather than call it into question. It doesn't establish realism on its own, but it points in the wrong direction for this task.
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