Quote:
The author asserts that Griffith introduced all of the following into American cinema EXCEPT
(A) consideration of social issues
(B) adaptations from Tennyson
(C) the flashback and other editing techniques
(D) photographic approaches inspired by Victorian painting
(E) dramatic plots suggested by Victorian theater
AdityaHongunti
generis carcass aragonn The author asserts that Griffith introduced all of the following into American cinema EXCEPT
(C)
the flashback and other editing techniques : The questions explicitly says "i
ntroduced" "what did G introduce"
But the passage states : " Griffith
persisted and experimented as well with other elements of cinematic syntax that have become standard ever since. These included the flashback, permitting broad psychological and emotional exploration "
How can we say that if someone is EXPERIMENTING on something he/she is actually INTRODCUING it???
(E) dramatic plots suggested by Victorian
theater : The reason i selected this asnwer is that the word "theatre" is nwhere mentioned ..we tak about paintings and novel and not theatre !!!
But i still want o know how C is incorrect !! i had to consume 1.5 mins extra !! the difference between introduce and experiment is whats troubling me !! I prefered E to C coz E was completely out of scope (theatre 0
Please share your opinon . Thank you
AdityaHongunti , I'll get to your other good questions soon.
I think you missed the last sentence of the second paragraph. It's easy to do.
The good news: you are laser-focused on words and meaning.
Smart move. Too often in RC the actual text and what it means get ignored.
The other news: I think you got a little literal about "introduce" and
thus did not notice the last sentence of the second paragraph.
In thus exploiting fully the possibilities of editing,
Griffith transposed devices of the Victorian novel to film and gave film mastery of time as well as space. The last sentence of the paragraph reinforces indications earlier in the paragraph that
Griffith introduced elements of the Victorian novel into American cinema, including the flashback and other editing techniques.
Paragraph 2Griffith also achieved dramatic effects by means of
creative editing.
He juxtaposed images and varied the speed and rhythm of their presentation, controlling dramatic intensity. . .
Griffith persisted and
experimented as well
with other elements of cinematic syntax that have become standard ever since [Griffith used them]. These included the
flashbackIn thus exploiting fully the
possibilities of editing,
Griffith
transposed devices of the Victorian novel to film and gave film mastery of time as well as space.
• Griffith persisted and experimented with [elements] that
have become standard . . . ever since Griffith used them = right after he used them
Those elements, in other words, were not standard in film before he used them.
The result of his persistence and experimentation
was that the elements became standard.
Griffith introduced and his introduction then standardized the elements into American cinema.
• the last sentence of the second paragraph cements answer (C) as incorrect
From the sentence quoted above, this part is important:
Griffith transposed devices of the Victorian novel to filmTo transpose devices of the Victorian novel to film means that
Griffith transplanted Victorian novel devices into his films.
To transplant that which was not previously "standard" but became so meets the definition of "introduced."
This note is for everyone with respect to RC:
In a scholarly essay whose organization resembles this sanitized history of a wretched man, (three paragraphs, three general topics, three topic sentences) . . .
If you get stuck on a question, read, in order, only the topic sentence
of each paragraph, and the last sentence of each paragraph.
(In this essay, the topic sentence of paragraph #1 is the second sentence of the essay.)
I am almost certain that such a technique would have eased your mind
more quickly about (C).
I think you would have noticed "transposed Victorian devices to film."
Even if "transposed" is not all that clear, you have a preposition (to in "to film")
indicating that
he took something from the Victorian novel
TO film.
And yes, you were spot on: there is zero mention of Victorian theater.
To decide between C and E, we are faced with
-- Zero mention of theater versus
-- some mention of the Victorian novel
Now what?
If reading the topic and concluding paragraph sentences does not help,
in 10 seconds, decide which is more decisive, and use your instincts, which are good . . .
Which is more decisive:
-- what is absent (is there any other word that could be a synonym for "Victorian theater"?)
-- what IS present, however imperfectly (and could "experiment = introduce")?
Hope that helps.
*Sanitized? To say that this GRE passage is "sanitized history" is to radically understate the case.
Dear GRE author: wanna talk about influential directors? Here is a really good list of the top 25. Choose a different director who didn't make a film that glorified the Ku Klux Klan and its murderous violence. Or don't sanitize. YMMV.