Q9 - Film historians have made

[kmk0520]

Premise - filmmakers made their movies with an eye to profit, and so they provided what their audiences most wanted in a film

Conclusion - the second criticism (that filmmakers self-indulgently created films reflecting their own dreams and desires) cannot be accurate

My prediction was that the filmmakers' desires and their audiences' desires were the same. Is my prediction completely wrong?

Since it's a sufficient assumption question, I was looking for an answer that matches my prediction. But, I couldn't quickly figure out why (E) is the right answer. Can you explain?

[a3friedm]

Since the conclusion uses borrowed language, I think it would helpful to focus on the relationship of what is being referenced.

1) Uncritical of the economic status quo
2) they self-indulgently created films reflecting their own dreams and desires.
3) Film makers gave the audience what they most wanted (a chance to imagine being wealthy)
4) Missing Premise
_________________
It cannot be accurate that it was self-indulgent for the films to reflect their own dreams and desires.

You mentioned that we have a sufficient assumption question stem, which means our missing premise must make our conclusion true. So the answer choice has to make not- self indulgent for the filmmakers to reflect their own dreams and desires.

(A) The biggest word that should raise a red flag here is the "should". What the filmmakers should do is out of scope, we need to know why they weren't self-indulgent.

(B) This tries attacking the first premise, our concern is the gap in logic between the second & third premises and the conclusion.

(C) This kind of says, people who were well off were the only ones going to the movies. I think this is an attempt to trick you by trying to combine all three premises, but that's not what we need. We need to know why it is not self-indulgent for filmmakers to reflect their own dreams and desires.

(D)Pretty far out of scope- there are plenty of reasons to get rid of this one but for a sufficient assumption question all we have to ask is "does this make our conclusion true", and it doesn't come close.

(E) Exactly what we need. If it is not self indulgent to give an audience what is most wants, it cannot be true that filmmakers were self-indulgent in creating films that reflected their own dreams and desires.

Hope this helped

[MarieM777]

Since the conclusion uses borrowed language, I think it would helpful to focus on the relationship of what is being referenced.

1) Uncritical of the economic status quo
2) they self-indulgently created films reflecting their own dreams and desires.
3) Film makers gave the audience what they most wanted (a chance to imagine being wealthy)
4) Missing Premise
_________________
It cannot be accurate that it was self-indulgent for the films to reflect their own dreams and desires.

You mentioned that we have a sufficient assumption question stem, which means our missing premise must make our conclusion true. So the answer choice has to make not- self indulgent for the filmmakers to reflect their own dreams and desires.

Can you diagram this? I chose the correct A.C. (E) by understanding what was missing and coming up with a prephrase that matched it. However, I struggled a bit with my diagram...

Premise 2 (critic): DF --> SI
Premise 3 (what is): DF --> GAWW
---------------------------------------
Conclusion (what's true): NOT SI

contrapositive: NOT SI --> NOT DF
NOT GAWW --> NOT DF

SA 1: NOT GAWW --> NOT SI --> NOT DF
SA2: DF --> SI --> GAWW

*Based on the conclusion, I knew premise 1 (status quo) was irrelevant to proving it to be true.

I had not looked over the answer choices and knew something was off. So I prephrased first...couldn't figure out how to diagram my prediction, so went straight to A.C. and got my answer. After choosing I realized, not only could I have included F in the conclusion, but I should have diagrammed "F --> NOT SI" since the conclusion opposes the criticism.

Based on your explanation, I realize I didn't have to diagram...but I still would like to know that my thought process is on track.

Which brings me to another question is...how do I know when diagramming is helpful or not? Twice I have diagrammed, went to the A.C. and the diagram either was unneeded (the A.C. was a sufficient assumption that got rid of an alternative reason that could invalidate the concl.) or simply unhelpful (the correct A.C. could have been determined without a diagram).

*DF = Depression-era Filmmaker
SI = Self-Indulgent
GAWW = Give Audience What they Want