#15 - Camera manufacturers typically advertise their products

[parytownson]

Hello Powerscore Team,

I recognized that this was a main point question and so I dwindled my answer choices down to either (B) or (C). Nevertheless, I chose (B) over (C).

Now, I thought the conclusion was the first clause of the second sentence -- "Differences between cameras in this respect..." -- and the premise would then be the other half of the sentence --"all modern lenses are so excellent..." I could thus treat the first sentence as background for the stimuli.

My prewrite for this question was: "Resolution meaningless since what is captured is limited by the developed film." I figured that since no matter how much detail is captured by the len's resolution (first sentence of the stimuli), no photographic film will capture this detail. So, (B) stating that beyond lens having a resolution differences, it seemed to make sense that they have no practical differences in the quality of images they produce.

I am having trouble seeing why (C) is correct. Is it because it is mentioning the advertising aspect of the stimuli?

Thank you for the clarification in advance, Powerscore Team!

[Beatrice Brown]

Hi Pary! Thanks so much for this question, and great job narrowing the answer choices down.

Answer choices (B) and (C) can seem quite similar, but there's an important difference between them. In the first clause of the second sentence, the author specifically states that the differences in resolution are irrelevant for practical photography and then goes on to explain why. The author is therefore arguing not that there is no difference in quality, but rather that any difference doesn't matter in practical photography since any of these modern lenses will have more detail than their alternative (photographic film).

Answer choice (B) does not accurately capture this argument, instead saying that the author argues that there is no practical difference at all in terms of quality. The author doesn't ever make this point, though. The author is just saying that any differences in detail don't matter because any of these modern lenses have more detail than the alternative. In other words, answer choice (B) doesn't pass the Fact Test because the author never states that there is no difference in quality, Remember, any correct answer choice for a Main Point question must pass the Fact Test! Answer choice (B) is actually a Shell Game answer because although the answer choice is similar to the main point of the argument, stating that there is no practical difference at all is different enough from saying there's no practical effect of the differences to make the answer choice incorrect.

Answer choice (C) accurately captures the main point of the author's argument, which is that the differences between these cameras in terms of resolution don't matter for practical photography because they all produce greater detail than their alternative. This is the same as saying that the differences between resolutions don't have any practical effect on the relative quality of these cameras for practical photography.

In general, on Main Point questions, be careful to not infer what the author means and instead stick to exactly what is stated in the stimulus. Here, since the stimulus never stated that there is no practical difference at all, any answer choice that says this cannot be correct.

I hope this helps!