CAT Questions | CAT Critical Reasoning Questions

The question is from CAT Critical Reasoning. Critical Reasoning for Verbal Ability for CAT. Critical Reasoning questions that appear in the verbal section of CAT test Reading Ability, Comprehension and Reasoning. Have a look at this question from Critical Reasoning. Solve CAT Questions from Critical Reasoning to get more practice and 2IIMs CAT questions bank provides you with CAT questions that can help you gear for CAT Exam .

Question 10: Any reporter worthy of the name would no sooner fiddle with direct quotes than a reputable photojournalist would alter his or her picture. News photographs are the equivalent of direct quotations and therefore are sacrosanct. To be sure, just as a writer can, in the interest of brevity or impact, choose which quotes to use in a story, so can a news photographer or picture editor crop out dead space in a news photo, or use the electronic equivalent of dodging or burning in to make a picture reproduce better. In this, I am reminded of what a Washington Times shooter once told me. On a computer outside the paper's darkroom, she said, there was plastered this flat admonition and warning: "If you can't do it in the darkroom, don't do it here".

Which of the following is the author least likely to agree with?

1. In photojournalism, editing news photographs by truncating dead space is licit.
2. The key elements of a news photograph, like the key words in a direct quote, are off limits to manipulation.
3. Journalists of repute choose amongst, but do not distort direct quotations.
4. It is permissible for a photojournalist to alter a news photo in the interest of brevity or impact.

Explanatory Answer

Method of solving this CAT Question from Critical Reasoning:

The main idea of this paragraph is that news photographs, like direct quotations, are sacrosanct. The writer argues that a news reporter can choose the quotes he wants to use in his story in the interest of keeping it concise and impactful. So too, it is permissible for the photojournalist to crop out the dead space in a photo, and use the techniques of dodging and burning in to brighten or darken areas of an image to make it reproduce better.

The question asks us to choose the statement among the given options that the writer is least likely to agree with.

Option a- In photojournalism, editing news photographs by truncating dead space is licit.

This is inferred to be true from the given paragraph.

Option b- The key elements of a news photograph, like the key words in a direct quote, are off limits to manipulation.

Again, this idea is explicitly stated in the paragraph given.

Option c- Journalists of repute choose amongst, but do not distort direct quotations.

The writer argues that a journalist of repute will never alter a direct quote. He has the freedom to choose amongst the quotes to make his story crisp and impactful.

Option d- It is permissible for a photojournalist to alter a news photo in the interest of brevity or impact.

This statement contradicts the main idea of the paragraph. The paragraph argues that a reporter can limit the number of direct quotes in the interest of brevity or impact. The photojournalist cannot do more than cropping out dead space or dodging and burning in a news photograph.

The writer is least likely to agree with statement (d).

The question is "Which of the following is the author least likely to agree with?"
The option is D

Hence, the answer is D

Choice D is the correct answer.