Film Director: It is true that certain characters and plot twists in my newly released film The Big Heist are...

GMAT Critical Reasoning : (CR) Questions

Source: Official Guide

Critical Reasoning

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Film Director: It is true that certain characters and plot twists in my newly released film The Big Heist are strikingly similar to characters and plot twists in Thieves, a movie that came out last year. Based on these similarities, the film studio that produced Thieves is now accusing me of taking ideas from that film. The accusation is clearly without merit. All production work on The Big Heist was actually completed months before Thieves was released.

Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest support for the director's rejection of the accusation?

Before Thieves began production, its script had been circulating for several years among various film studios, including the studio that produced The Big Heist.

The characters and plot twists that are most similar in the two films have close parallels in many earlier films of the same genre.

The film studio that produced Thieves seldom produces films in this genre.

The director of Thieves worked with the director of The Big Heist on several earlier projects.

The time it took to produce The Big Heist was considerably shorter than the time it took to produce Thieves.

Solution

Passage Analysis:

Text from Passage	Analysis
It is true that certain characters and plot twists in my newly released film The Big Heist are strikingly similar to characters and plot twists in Thieves, a movie that came out last year.	What it says: The director admits his film has very similar characters and plot twists to another movie that came out last year What it does: Opens by acknowledging the basic facts that make the accusation seem valid What it is: Director's admission
Based on these similarities, the film studio that produced Thieves is now accusing me of taking ideas from that film.	What it says: Because of these similarities, the other studio is claiming he stole their ideas What it does: Explains the accusation that stems from the similarities he just admitted What it is: Description of the accusation
The accusation is clearly without merit.	What it says: The director strongly rejects the accusation as completely baseless What it does: Makes a definitive counter-claim against the accusation he just described What it is: Director's main conclusion
All production work on The Big Heist was actually completed months before Thieves was released.	What it says: His movie was completely finished months before the other movie even came out What it does: Provides the key evidence to support his rejection of the accusation What it is: Director's primary evidence Visualization: Timeline: Big Heist completed (Jan) → 3-4 months pass → Thieves released (May)

Argument Flow:

The director starts by acknowledging the similarities that make the accusation seem reasonable, then states his rejection of the accusation, and finally provides timeline evidence to support his position.

Main Conclusion:

The accusation that the director stole ideas from Thieves is without merit.

Logical Structure:

If Big Heist was completed before Thieves was released, then the director couldn't have seen Thieves to copy from it, so the accusation must be false.

Prethinking:

Question type:

Strengthen - We need to find information that makes the director's rejection of the plagiarism accusation more convincing

Precision of Claims

The director's defense relies on a timing claim - his film was completed before the other film was released. We need to strengthen this timeline-based defense against plagiarism accusations

Strategy

The director's argument hinges on the idea that he couldn't have copied from Thieves because his film was done before Thieves came out. To strengthen this, we should look for information that makes this timeline defense even more solid. We can think about what would make it impossible or extremely unlikely that he could have seen or copied from Thieves - things like proving he had no access to Thieves during production, or showing his ideas came from somewhere else entirely

Answer Choices Explained

Before Thieves began production, its script had been circulating for several years among various film studios, including the studio that produced The Big Heist.

This actually weakens the director's argument rather than strengthens it. If the script for Thieves had been circulating for years among studios, including the studio that produced The Big Heist, then the director could have had access to Thieves' ideas long before the film was released. This undermines his timeline-based defense by showing he could have copied the ideas even though his film was completed first.

The characters and plot twists that are most similar in the two films have close parallels in many earlier films of the same genre.

This significantly strengthens the director's argument. If the similar elements between the two films also appear in many earlier films of the same genre, this provides a much more plausible alternative explanation for the similarities. Instead of one director copying from the other, both films likely drew from established genre conventions. This makes the plagiarism accusation much less credible and strongly supports the director's rejection of the claim.

The film studio that produced Thieves seldom produces films in this genre.

This is irrelevant to whether the director stole ideas from Thieves. The frequency with which the other studio produces films in this genre has no bearing on whether plagiarism occurred between these two specific films. It neither strengthens nor weakens the director's defense.

The director of Thieves worked with the director of The Big Heist on several earlier projects.

This actually raises more questions about potential collaboration or idea-sharing between the directors, which could weaken the director's position. If the two directors had worked together before, it's possible they shared ideas or influences, which doesn't help the director's case that the similarities are coincidental.

The time it took to produce The Big Heist was considerably shorter than the time it took to produce Thieves.

The relative production times of the two films doesn't address the core issue of whether ideas were stolen. Even if The Big Heist was produced more quickly, this doesn't explain the similarities or make the plagiarism accusation less credible. Speed of production is irrelevant to the question of idea theft.

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