MGMAT CAT-6---Films on wars

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MGMAT CAT-6---Films on wars

by prachich1987 » Sat Feb 05, 2011 10:56 am
During and immediately after a war, Hollywood films typically trumpet the glory of sacrifice and unquestioning patriotism. Ten to fifteen years later, however, morally fraught and sometimes pacifistic movies about the conflict typically emerge. For example, after America joined World War I in 1917, the still infant film industry glorified the fight against "the Hun." But by the early 1930s, films such as All Quiet on the Western Front did not shy away from depicting the horrors of combat and the disillusionment of soldiers. After World War II began, the cycle repeated itself. Guadalcanal Diary, produced during the second world war, portrayed "the ultimate sacrifice" as a noble and undisputed good while diminishing the ethical complexities. By 1957, though, films such as The Bridge on the River Kwai, first published in book form in 1952, were winning awards for depicting the moral confusion inherent in war. Subsequently, the movie The Green Berets, produced at the height of the Vietnam war in the late 1960s, was far closer in tone to Guadalcanal Diary than to The Bridge on the River Kwai. A decade or more passed before the film industry finally began producing more complex and ambivalent depictions of the Vietnam war, such as Apocalypse Now and Platoon.


Which of the following best conveys the meaning of the word "fraught" as used in line 2 of the passage?

A) "pacifistic" (line 3)
B) "glorified" (line 4)
C)"diminishing the ethical complexities" (lines 8-9)
D)"confusion" (line 10)
E)"complex" (line 14)

OA: after some time
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by maihuna » Sat Feb 05, 2011 11:54 am
The author mentions negative mentallity about the films released a decade after war, so in fraught and sometimes pacifistic movies , fraught will have a negative conotation. Since pacifistic is already there A is out, B is out as it has positive meaning,

morally fraught, after morally there can not be complex, as there is nothing morally complex, similarly their can not be morally confusion, so all except C is out and so IMO C. morally diminishing makes sense as well.
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by jaxis » Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:05 pm
D IMO.

After World War II began, the cycle repeated itself.
Cycle is:
1)films typically trumpet the glory of sacrifice and unquestioning patriotism (Guadalcanal Diary)
Then
2)morally fraught(The Bridge on the River Kwai)


and from line 2 we can say Morally fraught and pacifistic are not same.

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by prachich1987 » Sat Feb 05, 2011 6:46 pm
Even I had marked D
But the OA is E
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by maihuna » Sun Feb 06, 2011 2:54 am
prachich1987 wrote:Even I had marked D
But the OA is E
Can u plz post the OE, i know grammatically it can go to something close to morally complicated and hence morally complex, but i think it is an overkill given the limited context.
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by crimson2283 » Sun Feb 06, 2011 5:15 am
prachich1987 wrote:Even I had marked D
But the OA is E
I chose D too. Surprised its E.

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by prachich1987 » Sun Feb 06, 2011 6:29 am
Please find below the OE given by MGMAT

It may help to know that the definition of the adjective "fraught" is "filled with a specified element or elements." In this case, the "element" in question would be moral complexity. The correct answer can also be determined from the context of the passage.

The first sentence of the passage discusses films that "trumpet the glory" of war. The second sentence begins with the contrast word "however" and indicates that movies made years after a war ends are "morally fraught." At the least, then, "fraught" does not refer to the movies that "trumpet the glory" of war. Later in the passage, several movies that fall into this "morally fraught" category are described; the correct answer will be chosen from one of these descriptions.

(A) If pacifistic meant the same thing as fraught, then the passage would not need to use both words to describe a category of film ("morally fraught and pacifistic"), as it does in the second sentence, because the information would be redundant.

(B) The "fraught" movies are not the same movies that "trumpet the glory" of the war.

(C) This description is applied to a film that glorifies war (Guadalcanal Diary). We want to define a word that describes films from the second category, the films that do not glorify the war.

(D) While the passage does mention "moral confusion" when describing films that do not glorify war (the correct category), the word "fraught" itself does not imply morality (otherwise, the author would not need to put the word "morally" in front of it). Either way, just because a film highlights moral confusion does not mean the films themselves are confused (only that the characters may be).

(E) CORRECT. If we were to replace the word "fraught" with the word "complex", we would have a perfect description of the second category of films, those which do not glorify war. These films are described as "delineating...moral confusion" and not "diminishing ethical complexity," meaning they are morally complex.
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by THISTIMESURE » Sun Feb 06, 2011 9:54 am
one thing that i want to share is that the script of movies was not confused but characters in the movies were in confused state about the war.

prachich1987 wrote:Please find below the OE given by MGMAT

It may help to know that the definition of the adjective "fraught" is "filled with a specified element or elements." In this case, the "element" in question would be moral complexity. The correct answer can also be determined from the context of the passage.

The first sentence of the passage discusses films that "trumpet the glory" of war. The second sentence begins with the contrast word "however" and indicates that movies made years after a war ends are "morally fraught." At the least, then, "fraught" does not refer to the movies that "trumpet the glory" of war. Later in the passage, several movies that fall into this "morally fraught" category are described; the correct answer will be chosen from one of these descriptions.

(A) If pacifistic meant the same thing as fraught, then the passage would not need to use both words to describe a category of film ("morally fraught and pacifistic"), as it does in the second sentence, because the information would be redundant.

(B) The "fraught" movies are not the same movies that "trumpet the glory" of the war.

(C) This description is applied to a film that glorifies war (Guadalcanal Diary). We want to define a word that describes films from the second category, the films that do not glorify the war.

(D) While the passage does mention "moral confusion" when describing films that do not glorify war (the correct category), the word "fraught" itself does not imply morality (otherwise, the author would not need to put the word "morally" in front of it). Either way, just because a film highlights moral confusion does not mean the films themselves are confused (only that the characters may be).

(E) CORRECT. If we were to replace the word "fraught" with the word "complex", we would have a perfect description of the second category of films, those which do not glorify war. These films are described as "delineating...moral confusion" and not "diminishing ethical complexity," meaning they are morally complex.

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by lunarpower » Mon Feb 07, 2011 3:58 am
THISTIMESURE wrote:one thing that i want to share is that the script of movies was not confused but characters in the movies were in confused state about the war.
this poster has correctly identified the basis for choosing between choices (d) and (e) -- the word "fraught" is used as an adjective to describe the films themselves, not to describe the characters or the situations in the films. given this fact, it's more appropriate to describe the films as "morally complex" than as "morally confused"; the latter of these would be a better description of the characters, not the films.
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by bblast » Thu May 26, 2011 4:44 am
The passage implies which of the following about the message portrayed in the movie The Bridge on the River Kwai
a>It supports the author's view that it is better to depict the full complexities and moral confusions of a conflict than to pretend that sacrifice is always worthwhile.

b>It put forward the pioneering portrayal of the moral confusion of war.
c>It represented a more realistic depiction of war than did the message in Guadalcanal Diary.
d>It incorporated the negative aspects of war more so than did the message in Guadalcanal Diary.
e>It was more similar in tone to the message in Apocalypse Now than to the message in All Quiet on the Western Front.

oa-D
[spoiler]was'nt B too close for comfort here ? except for pioneer meaning the very first to do so ?[/spoiler]
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by jabhatta » Tue Sep 26, 2017 4:50 pm
lunarpower wrote:
THISTIMESURE wrote:one thing that i want to share is that the script of movies was not confused but characters in the movies were in confused state about the war.
this poster has correctly identified the basis for choosing between choices (d) and (e) -- the word "fraught" is used as an adjective to describe the films themselves, not to describe the characters or the situations in the films. given this fact, it's more appropriate to describe the films as "morally complex" than as "morally confused"; the latter of these would be a better description of the characters, not the films.
Hi Ron -

Why is C wrong specifically in this ...

Could you please explain