LR Question 16 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Marife: That was a bad movie because, by not providing…
QUESTION TYPE: Point At Issue
ARGUMENTS: Marife says the movie was bad because it violated mystery movie conventions.
Nguyen says the conventions don’t matter, since the main point of the movie was to show the relationship between the detective and the assistant.
ANALYSIS: For point at issue questions, find something the authors have an opinion about, and disagree on.
Marife thinks the movie was bad and that the mystery movie standards were important. Nguyen thinks the standards weren’t the main point. Nguyen doesn’t say whether the movie is good.
___________
- Very tempting trap answer. But Nguyen doesn’t say whether the movie is good or bad.
- Marife doesn’t say whether the relationship was important. She just thinks that not following murder mystery conventions was unforgivable.
- CORRECT. A bit tricky. Nguyen says that the murder shouldn’t be taken to define the film. This is another way of saying that the movie shouldn’t be classified as a murder mystery. Marife clearly believes the movie was a failed attempt at a murder mystery.
- Neither person talks about universal criteria necessary for every murder mystery. Marife might think that mysteries only need 5 of 7 characteristics, for example.
- No one mentions this. This is playing on outside assumptions that good mysteries allow viewers to solve the murder.
More Resources for Point at Issue Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Point at Issue questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers point at issue questions.
Hi Graeme,
The problem I have with answer choice C is that it seems to be a point that they agree about (not disagree). Both Marife and Nguyen’s statements seem to indicate that they AGREE that the movie should not be classified as a murder mystery. Any clarification would be appreciated
Monica
Marife said the movie was a bad movie because it violated the conventions of a murder mystery. That implies she thinks the movie was a failed murder mystery.
We don’t say comedies are bad movies because they violate murder mystery conventions. Only murder mysteries can get in trouble for violating murder mystery conventions.
Hi Graeme
Thank you for all your hard work– this site has seriously helped me. My question on this (PT 67, LR1, test section 2, #16): Marife seems to be saying it was a bad movie because it did not allow the viewer to solve the murder on their own. Nguyen responds,’ but that wasn’t the point, the point was to show the complex relationship between the chief and assistant. the murder was just for context’.
This response led me to pick answer choice E, because it seems that Nguyen is just saying that the author was not intending for viewers to solve the murder, while Marife is implying that he would be, but in not doing so violated requirements of murder mysteries.
I was torn between this and C, and picked E over it (unfortunately).
Any help? thank you so much. Taking the test next week and still very nervous
Hi Nathan!
The issue with (E) is that the stimulus talks about having the information necessary to solve the murder, not whether the viewers will be ABLE to solve it. Think about a good murder mystery movie. You’re introduced to a lot of clues that aren’t presented as clues – the best part of the movie is when the viewer finally understands how all the pieces fit together – most people aren’t able to solve it on their own, but the solution makes sense once the film reveals it.
So in the movie they’re discussing, there were probably a lot of clues that the viewer didn’t get to see because the film was focusing on the relationship between the chief detective and her assistant. Marife thinks that this makes it a bad murder-mystery, but Nguyen thinks it’s not a murder mystery at all.
Hope that helps! Good luck on the test this weekend!