#9 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Purpose

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[ava17]

Could someone explain why Q9 is not A? I thought line 39 supported the answer by saying "structure the audiences are prepared for"

[Robert Carroll]

ava,

The author's definition of "realistic" is in line 10. The claim about "realistic" in line 39 and the sentence in which it's embedded is presented as part of an argument by Bordwell. The author doesn't fully subscribe to this - note the scare quotes around "realistic", "realism", and "reality" in the various places those words are used. The author is taking issue with, not subscribing fully to, Bordwell's interpretation of a musical in these lines. Answer choice (A) is thus not the author's opinion, as the question requires.

Robert Carroll

[snowy]

Re: the last sentence of Robert Carrol’s reply above - does the question require that the answer align with the author’s opinion though? Since it’s talking about the use of the term throughout the passage, is it not more-so a question about how it is used than what the author thinks it means?

Where am I going wrong here? Is it that the “uses...to refer to” indicates intent (of the author)?

Thank you in advance for clarifying!

[KelseyWoods]

Hi Snowy!

The question is asking us how the author uses the term "realistic." Since the author is the one using the term, their opinion is relevant. In a sense, you can't really separate how the term is used from what the author thinks it means. The author is the one using the term, they use it based on what they think it means, and they are using it in a specific way to help communicate their main point.

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[Henry Z]

I was wondering if there was any approach, elimination process, tips, etc, that I can use to deal with this kind of definition question, which always trips me up.

I chose C in this one because of the last two sentences of the first paragraph. So my paraphrase was something like, “the quality that allows technical elements and devices help the audience get into the story without noticing them.” Basically, a realistic film is when technical elements and devices make the story more smooth and captivating, but the technical seams don’t show and audience aren’t conscious of the so-called movie magic.

I think C matches my paraphrase, especially when I replace the author’s other references with C. For example, when author says “the break in the film's reality,” s/he means the musical interlude, which “isn't intended to advance the plot but instead to draw attention to its own artistic expertise.” So interlude isn’t realitic because, as said in the last sentence of the first paragraph, it’s one of the “devices that draw attention to the film as film rather than to the story are avoided.”

I eliminated B because it left out technical part and it reads like a comment on content (kitchen-sink or something, as realism in its commonest sense, which I thought was usually not the correct answer to this kind of question?), but the second paragraph makes it clear that musicals are "anomalous" to classical realism because of its “filmmaking techniques” such as “editing and camera movement.”

[Robert Carroll]

Henry Z,

The end of the penultimate sentence of the first paragraph directly matches answer choice (B). That part defines a realistic story as "one in which the world of the story is self-sufficient and recognizably related to our own." "Realistic" has its standard definition here of "resembling the actual world."

Technical expertise may be a means to the end, but a technically well-executed movie in your sense could be completely unrealistic in the passage's sense - Peter Jackson may have done a good job of constructing the Lord of the Rings trilogy to draw attention away from the technical, movie-making aspects, but the resulting story is not realistic at all. A movie that does extremely well disguising the technical magic that goes into making a movie can nonetheless be highly unrealistic - in the common sense definition and in the passage's sense of the term.

Robert Carroll

[landphil]

I am still having trouble understanding why it is B and not A if someone wouldn't mind helping me out. The author uses realism as it is presented in B once in the first paragraph in that sense. The numerous other times realism is referenced it is mostly used in quotes and references what A represents. Although the direct term in the question stem, "realistic," is only used twice total, once in the manner of answer choice B then once in the manner of answer choice A. Since A can encompass B, and the question asks about how the author uses "realistic" throughout the passage, I went with A.

The question is about how the author used it. Did she use it to mean representing real life in the second instance it was used (line 39 someone else previously cited)? It doesn't look like it. She did put it in quotes though to show she did not agree with realism being referred to in this way, but that would imply she IS referring to realism in that way, and the question does ask how does the author use realistic THROUGHOUT the passage.

Please help me understand!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi landphil

Because you can use the search function on the test, I'd recommend using it here. Let's look at the uses of the word "realistic" in the passage.

The first use of the term is in the first paragraph. The author uses the term with the word story, further clarifying that "the world of the story is self-sufficient and recognizably related to our own." The key idea as part of that definition is that it's related to our world. It's recognizable and real.

The next use is in the final paragraph, where the author tries to explain how the wonky world of musicals could be realistic. The author describes Bordwell as claiming that musicals are realistic even with the musical interludes because they are expected by the audience. The author of the passage disagrees with this, however, so that is not how the author is using the term.

The author disagrees with Bordwell and is clear that in their mind, "realistic" requires a connection to the world as it is, not any other meaning. That fits best with answer choice (B). The idea of fitting with the narrative structure as described in answer choice (A) would connect better to Bordwell's use of the term.

Hope that helps!

[landphil]

Hi landphil

Because you can use the search function on the test, I'd recommend using it here. Let's look at the uses of the word "realistic" in the passage.

The first use of the term is in the first paragraph. The author uses the term with the word story, further clarifying that "the world of the story is self-sufficient and recognizably related to our own." The key idea as part of that definition is that it's related to our world. It's recognizable and real.

The next use is in the final paragraph, where the author tries to explain how the wonky world of musicals could be realistic. The author describes Bordwell as claiming that musicals are realistic even with the musical interludes because they are expected by the audience. The author of the passage disagrees with this, however, so that is not how the author is using the term.

The author disagrees with Bordwell and is clear that in their mind, "realistic" requires a connection to the world as it is, not any other meaning. That fits best with answer choice (B). The idea of fitting with the narrative structure as described in answer choice (A) would connect better to Bordwell's use of the term.

Hope that helps!

Hi Rachel, thank you for the response! I see what you are saying, but I think this is going to have to be one of those questions I just forever disagree with. In my head, if an author "uses" a word in a certain way, even facetiously or disingenuously, they are still using the word in that way. Just because they believe it to actually mean something else, if they are using it disingenuously or sarcastically, I do think they are then using the word in that way whether or not they truly believe that to be how the word should be defined.