Q17 - A recent study of major

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
Explain Discrepancy EXCEPT

Stimulus Breakdown:
Fact 1: Most plots of major movies are variations on plots used before.
Fact 2: many people enjoy seeing several new movies each year.

Answer Anticipation:
Given that "they keep recycling old plots", how can it be that "people enjoy seeing several new movies each year"?

Correct Answer:
A

Answer Choice Analysis:
(A) This has nothing to do with why people would want to see the movie.

(B) Explains. Moviegoers can't tell that the plot is being recycled.

(C) Explains. Even though plots are recycled, moviegoers rarely see two versions of the same plot in the same five year period.

(D) Explains. People LIKE seeing the same plot dressed up in different clothing.

(E) Explains. The plots being recycled come from before the modern era, so modern moviegoers aren't already familiar with these plots.

Takeaway/Pattern: Pretty straightforward. If we're properly prephrasing, "WHY would people want to keep seeing movies, if the movies have recycled plots?" then (A) sticks out fairly easily as not being about the moviegoer's psychological enjoyment of the movie.

#officialexplanation

[opulence2001]

Could someone please explain why A is correct over E? I chose E because it seems to assume that just because the plot lines are old that people would not be familiar with them. I thought that for this reason that the fact that the plot line was old did not adequately explain the discrepancy.

A I see talks about financial success, while this requires an assumption that to be financially successful require people to come out and see the movie, I thought this was more plausible than the assumption required for E to work.

[tamwaiman]

(A) is incorrect because it just repeats the conclusion by another form of description. However, it doesn't explain why many people enjoy the movies with similar plots used many times before.

[levyyun]

A is the correct answer.

I was stuck between answer choices A and E. I originally picked A and wanted to move on, but in the end I changed my answer to E, because it seemed to be more random/unhelpful compared to A.

I am assuming answer choice E is the incorrect choice, because it still supports the idea that people enjoy watching movies with the same plot. I was attracted to this answer, because I initially thought that it did not really matter in which decades originality suffered the most. However, in the end, this historical fact still shows that people enjoy seeing several new movies each year, even in the present day.

Upon closer evaluation, answer choice A doesn't help resolve anything. Unoriginal movies being more financially successful does not explain why people enjoy watching movies with the same plots.

Please let me know if my reasoning is even half correct.

Thank you.

[tommywallach]

(A) is the answer everyone. Remember, the answers are listed in the back!

-t

[asafezrati]

So E can help resolve the issue by showing that the previous uses happened a long time ago, so people enjoy because their either don't remember the plot, have not seen it for a long time or didn't know it because they are young and didn't watch those films?

[ganbayou]

I also do not understand why E helps the discrepancy...also C.
Is it because if it's low many people may not have watched similar plot and they still enjoy newer movies?

Thank you

[rinagoldfield]

Hi Ganbayou,
(C) helps because it suggests that individuals don’t see repeated plot structures, so feel like they are seeing fresh storytelling.
(E) helps because it means movies are recycling plots from 2-3 generations ago. Moviegoers are less likely to have already seen plots from the 40’s and 50’s than from more recent years.
--Rina

[KenM242]

I thought (A) COULD explain the discrepancy because I thought,

If a movie is financially successful, then people must enjoy that movie.

Therefore, [standard plots --> financially successful --> people enjoy].

While reading (A), I did think the "financially successful" bit was somewhat suspicious but went 'meh' and chose it.

Now that I think of it, a movie can be financially successful while people not enjoying it. It does happen in real world too. Advertisements can build up hype among people, making them anticipate the movie and when it finally opens, A LOT of people go watch it in first few days and the movie turns out to be pretty bad. Kinda like The Transformers, a lot of people like it, but a lot of people hate it but keep watching series after series.



As (E), I think the choice is poorly written.

I can see the author was trying not to say 'most of those previous uses occurred TOO LONG AGO TO BE RECOGNIZABLE FOR CURRENT MOVIE GOERS' but while trying to disguise it with '1940s and 1950s', objectivity was somewhat compromised, leaving room for some to argue against (E) being the 'perfect' answer.

[mswang7]

Plots have been repeated yet people still like seeing them.
Possible answers: people forget movies after they watch them, they don't go for unique story lines etc

A. Okay I think this is saying there is incentive to keep the story lines "standard" bc that means more $$$ but this feels somewhat out of scope to me
B. There only needs to. be a view tweaks for audience to think there is a different plot. I think that makes sense
C. There are so many movies, one person probably doesn't come across a repeated plot
D. enjoyment can be derived through differences in plot development
E. For this to explain the discrepancy you would need to assume that people have not seen movies that old

Struggling between A&E because I see how they both could work.
"Standard" is undefined in A - I assumed this meant the similar plot movies but all the other choices explicitly state "movies with similar plot" or some variation."