In the early years of television, Vladimir Zworykin was, at least in

Question

In the early years of television, Vladimir Zworykin was, at least in the public sphere, recognized as its inventor. His loudest champion was his boss, David Sarnoff, then president of RCA and a man that we regard even today as "the father of television." Current historians agree, however, that Philo Farnsworth, a self-educated prodigy who was the first to transmit live images, was television's true inventor.

In his own time, Farnsworth's contributions went largely unnoticed, in large part because he was excluded from the process of introducing the invention to a national audience. Sarnoff put televisions into living rooms, and Sarnoff was responsible for a dominant paradigm of the television industry that continues to be relevant today: advertisers pay for the programming so that they can have a receptive audience for their products. Sarnoff had already utilized this construct to develop the radio industry, and it had, within ten years, become ubiquitous. Farnsworth thought the television should be used as an educational tool, but he had little understanding of the business world, and was never able to implement his ideas.

Perhaps one can argue that Sarnoff simply adapted the business model for radio and television from the newspaper industry, replacing the revenue from subscriptions and purchases of individual newspapers with that of selling the television sets themselves, but Sarnoff promoted himself as nothing less than a visionary. Some television critics argue that the construct Sarnoff implemented has played a negative role in determining the content of the programs themselves, while others contend that it merely created a democratic platform from which the audience can determine the types of programming it wants.   1 
 E 
 1. The primary purpose of the passage is to

(A) correct public misconception about Farnsworth's role in developing early television programs
(B) debate the influence of television on popular culture
(C) challenge the current public perception of Vladimir Zworykin
(D) chronicle the events that led up to the invention of the television
(E) describe Sarnoff's influence on the public perception of television's inception, and debate the impact of Sarnoff's paradigm

2 
 C 
 2. It can be inferred from the third paragraph of the passage that

(A) television shows produced by David Sarnoff and Vladimir Zworykin tended to earn negative reviews
(B) educational programs cannot draw as large an audience as sports programs
(C) a number of critics feel that Sarnoff's initial decision to earn television revenue through advertising has had a positive or neutral impact on content
(D) educational programs that are aired in prime time, the hours during which the greatest number of viewers are watching television, are less likely to earn a profit than those that are aired during the daytime hours
(E) in matters of programming, the audience's preferences should be more influential than those of the advertisers

3 
 E 
 3. Which of the following best illustrates the relationship between the second and third paragraphs?

(A) The second paragraph dissects the evolution of a contemporary controversy; the third paragraph presents differing viewpoints on that controversy.
(B) The second paragraph explores the antithetical intentions of two men involved in the infancy of an industry; the third paragraph details the eventual deterioration of that industry.
(C) The second paragraph presents differing views of a historical event; the third paragraph represents the author's personal opinion about that event,
(D) The second paragraph provides details that are necessary to support the author's opinion, which is presented in the third paragraph.
(E) The second paragraph presents divergent visions about the possible uses of a technological device; the third paragraph initiates a debate about the ramifications of one of those perspectives.

4 
 B 
 4. According to the passage, the television industry, at its inception, earned revenue from

(A) advertising only
(B) advertising and the sale of television sets
(C) advertising and subscriptions
(D) subscriptions and the sale of television sets
(E) advertising, subscriptions, and the sale of television sets

5 
 D 
 5. The passage suggests that Farnsworth might have earned greater public notoriety for his invention if

(A) Vladimir Zworykin had been less vocal about his own contributions to the television
(B) Farnsworth had been able to develop and air his own educational programs
(C) Farnsworth had involved Sarnoff in his plans to develop, manufacture, or distribute the television
(D) Sarnoff had involved Farnsworth in his plans to develop, manufacture, or distribute the television
(E) Farnsworth had a better understanding of the type of programming the audience wanted to watch most

rjacobsMGMAT · Accepted Answer

Sure! Question 5 asks "The passage suggests that Farnsworth might have earned greater public notoriety for his invention if..."

Well I can't answer that unless I know why he didn't gain a lot of public notoriety in the first place: because Sarnoff gave Zworykin the credit. So basically, Zworykin got the notoriety because he worked for Sarnoff (and ostensibly that work involved developing/manufacturing/distributing the TV). If Farnsworth had been in that position instead of Zworykin, then Farnsworth would have gotten the credit. So (D) is the answer.

rjacobsMGMAT · Answer

ECEBD, but I'm not positive about #3 and this one was time-consuming for me. I'll save lengthy discussion for later, after others have had a chance.

Also, I hope I'm right since I can see this is an MGMAT question

PUNEETSCHDV · Answer

hello R jacobs just want to discuss 3rd ques with u . . i think it cannot be E because E refers to details in the paragraphs and not the essence of paragraphs . . for 2nd my notes said sarnoff was responsible for the widespread use of television and for 3rd para the authors opinion is in first line itself

" but Sarnoff promoted himself as nothing less
than a visionary."

" but Sarnoff promoted himself as nothing less
than a visionary."

carcass · Answer

You have nailed the correct answers

E C E B D are the OA

Thanks for discussion. If someone has doubts please asking.

crackHSW · Answer

My Take EEEAE , I see i get 2 c 3 w very bad , can some one explain Q2 , Q4 and Q5.

For 5th I can see that it says  earned greater public notoriety   , but no where in the passage is bad publicity about Farnsworth mentioned. All the start of 2nd para says is

In his own time, Farnsworth's contributions
went largely unnoticed, in large part because he was
excluded from the process of introducing the invention
to a national audience  , but it doesnt mean that Fransworth would have gained negative publicity if he was included in the process.

rjacobsMGMAT · Answer

Yes, this was the toughest for me as well! Here's how I broke it down: The second paragraph presents divergent visions about the possible uses of a technological device; OK, this works: the device is the TV, the divergent visions are Sarnoff's (radio-like business model) and Farnsworth's (educational tool). the third paragraph initiates a debate about the ramifications of one of those perspectives. I started with the phrase "one of those perspectives" - whose perspective are they talking about? Well, clearly Sarnoff's. Then I asked myself, "Are any ramifications discussed?" This was harder to answer, but it does seem like the ramifications were either that the Sarnoff model led to poor programming or that it led to a democratic platform. I did think "initiates a debate" was a little too strong, but then I asked myself, "If I were a high school teacher, would I be able to lead a discussion about whether Sarnoff's model had a negative or neutral impact on programming?" I think I would, so this paragraph does actually initiate a debate, or at least leave room for it. I actually disagree that E talks only about specifics - for me, the essence of the second paragraph for me is "Farnsworth (nerd) vs. Sarnoff (MBA)" (sorry, a little MBA humor here :-D

) and the essence of the third paragraph is "Radio-like model led to bad TV?" This matches (E) fairly closely.

qweert · Answer

I got EEEDD.

So 3 Correct & 2 wrong.

Can some explain Q 2 & 4

Para 3: Sarnoff simply adapted the business model for radio and television
from the newspaper industry,  replacing the revenue
from subscriptions and purchases of individual news-
papers with that of selling the television sets

So shouldn't the answer be D for Q 4.

carcass · Answer

(B) CORRECT. Advertising and the sale of television sets are the two ways mentioned through which the industry could generate revenue, From MGMAT RC 4th guide

This one was very trcky because you had to connected TWO different part of the passage: the 2 and 3 th paragraph

carcass · Answer

Because imply that other critics think that Sarnoof had a positive role at least on TV

E is out of scope

russ9 · Answer

Hi,

When I read 5, I thought that Fransworth had already invented the TV. Doesn't that mean that he would've gained public recognition if he had involved Sarnoff and showed off his invention to him?

Fransworth was excluded b/c Sarnoff wanted to be the poster boy. So if Fransworth had allowed some profit sharing, this would've been fine. The passage also states that Sarnoff claimed himself to be a mastermind, meaning, he wanted the spotlight. How do we know that involving Fransworth would mean that he would share his spotlight?

Why is this off? I felt as though this was a clear succession of events?

yurkennis · Answer

Why Q1 is clearly E, but never D--even as a contender?

In MGMAT guide 6th edition, D is phrased a bit differently, and I'm more interested in this phrasing:

"(D) chronicle the events that led from the development of radio to the invention of television"

The passage clearly tells how TV became to live thanks to a proven business model from radio--so it clearly "chronicles" the evolution from Radio to TV. And making a technology to work at scale is clearly an "invention" in the context of the passage, as Farnsworth's "pure technology" is not considered by the passage as an invention in itself.

As for (E): I agree that it's the only answer focused on Sarnoff, and Sarnoff is maybe more a focus of the passage. However: could someone explain how  every  word used in the (E) is matched by the passage. I'm specifically interested in the underlined words:

(E) describe Sarnoff's  influence on the public perception of  television's inception and  the debate around the impact  of Sarnoff's paradigm

Maybe I'm parsing its wrong, but as I read this answer, I need to find a match for all of these:
= influence on perception of TV inception (did Sarnoff influenced  the perception of inception ? seriously? how?)
= describe the debate around impact of his paradigm (did his paradigm itself made an impact? not the implementation or how it actually performed after decades of trial and error of the worldwide industry)

chaudhurysr · Answer

I have a totally different understanding of this passage. The passage clearly establishes a relation between Vladimir Zyorykin (VZ) and David Sarnoff (DS), DS being VZ's boss! However the passage nowhere hints that Philo Farnsworth (PF) was also a part of the same team or company, or had any kind of working/business relationship. It is absolutely possible that PF had been working alone and had no connection to DS. Which will mean DS cannot involve PF in his plans. In that case E is the only possible answer!!!!

MvArrow · Answer

Great way of reasoning! Instead, I interpreted in this way: As Farnsworth had an "idealistic" view regarding the use of television, and he also didn't have a proper business knowledge and the possibility to distribute the TV, he wouldn't have been able to make the TV a mass phenomenon, only Sarnoff had the means to do that, because he was a businessman. But your way of reasoning is more concise

Skywalker18 · Answer

AjiteshArun  , GMATNinja  ,  ChiranjeevSingh ,  mikemcgarry  ,  egmat  ,  sayantanc2k ,  RonPurewal  ,  DmitryFarber  ,  MagooshExpert  , other experts - please enlighten

Some television critics argue that the construct Sarnoff implemented has played a negative role in determining the content of the programs themselves

2 (C) a number of critics feel that Sarnoff's initial decision to earn television revenue through advertising has had a positive or neutral impact on content - 
Some refers to 1 to 100 . So can we surely say that C is a valid inference ?

MagooshExpert · Answer

Hi Skywalker18 ! I'd be happy to help, but I'm not totally sure what your question is here. Yes, C is a valid inference here, and C is the correct answer

If you have a more specific question, it would be great if you could clarify

-Carolyn

Skywalker18 · Answer

Hi Carolyn  MagooshExpert ,
In the real world, when one says
 "Some television critics argue that the construct Sarnoff implemented has played a negative role in determining the content of the programs themselves" - Statement 1
 we can infer the below
a number of critics feel that Sarnoff's initial decision to earn television revenue through advertising has had a positive or neutral impact on content - Statement 2

but since the word  some  can take any value from 1 to 100, can we be sure that statement 2 MUST be true(what if the some in statement 1 takes the value of 100)?

MagooshExpert · Answer

Hi Skywalker18 ! Thanks for clarifying

In the real world, the word "some" implies "not all", and usually "less than half" (otherwise we would use the word "many"). So if there are 100 total critics in the world, we can assume that Statement 1 implies that 1 < x < 100 (or more likely 1 < x < 50) critics assume that Sarnoff had a negative impact. That means that at least one critic, and likely at least 50 critics, thought that Sarnoff had a neutral or positive impact. While you're correct that "some" on its own refers to an indeterminate number, "some of " implies a part of the whole (not the whole thing). See this definition of "some": one indeterminate quantity, portion, or number as distinguished from the rest So there is an implied "rest" of the group, that is not included in the "some". Here, the "rest" would refer to the critics that did not think Sarnoff had a negative impact. Does that make sense? If not, let me know!

-Carolyn

thangvietnam · Answer

while hard passages can offer easy questions, easy passages can present hard questions. this is easy passage containing very hard questions. in this case, prethinking, prethink an answer and then find a matchh in the answer choices, a technics used for hard passage-easy question case dose not apply here. we have to use POE (power of elimination) to find the correct answer. POE is time consuming and requires higher level of inferring. be ready to spend enough time , be slow down and check each answer choice.

manhantan offer many easy passages with hard questions, the good material for practice and this is typical of gmat.

lsat passages are hard to read but the question is not very hard. if you focus too much on reading hard passage but do not focus on hard questions, you may fail on gmat. of course, at 750 level, both passage and questions are hard

dewanshee · Answer

Hi,
Can anybody clear my doubts as stated below:

1) For question 4, from which part of the passage can we infer the answer i.e. advertising and sales of television sets?
2) For question 5, why isn't the answer E instead of D, since it is clearly stated in the passage that "he(Farnsworth) had little understanding of the business world, and was never able to implement his ideas."

Thanks in advance

In the early years of television, Vladimir Zworykin was, at least in

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