CAT 2024 Slot 1 VARC RC Passage 4 Q18–Q21

A reading comprehension passage from the Verbal Ability & Reading Comprehension (VARC) section of CAT 2024 Slot 1, with 4 questions (RC · Arts & Culture). Answers are CAT's official key.

The passage

The passage below is accompanied by four questions. Based on the passage, choose the best answer for each question.

In the summer of 2022, subscribers to the US streaming service HBO MAX were alarmed to discover that dozens of the platform's offerings – from the Covid-themed heist thriller Locked Down to the recent remake of The Witches – had been quietly removed from the service . . . The news seemed like vindication to those who had long warned that streaming was more about controlling access to the cultural commons than expanding it, as did reports (since denied by the show's creators) that Netflix had begun editing old episodes of Stranger Things to retroactively improve their visual effects.

What's less clear is whether the commonly prescribed cure for these cultural ills – a return to the material pleasures of physical media – is the right one. While the makers of Blu-ray discs claim they have a shelf life of 100 years, such statistics remain largely theoretical until they come to pass, and are dependent on storage conditions, not to mention the continued availability of playback equipment. The humble DVD has already proved far less resilient, with many early releases already beginning to deteriorate in quality Digital movie purchases provide even less security. Any film "bought" on iTunes could disappear if you move to another territory with a different rights agreement and try to redownload it. It's a bold new frontier in the commodification of art: the birth of the product recall. After a man took to Twitter to bemoan losing access to Cars 2 after moving from Canada to Australia, Apple clarified that users who downloaded films to their devices would retain permanent access to those downloads, even if they relocated to a hemisphere where the [content was] subject to a different set of rights agreements. Thanks to the company's ironclad digital rights management technology, however, such files cannot be moved or backed up, locking you into watching with your Apple account.

Anyone who does manage to acquire Digital Rights Management free (DRM-free) copies of their favourite films must nonetheless grapple with ever-changing file format standards, not to mention data decay – the gradual process by which electronic information slowly but surely corrupts. Only the regular migration of files from hard drive to hard drive can delay the inevitable, in a sisyphean battle against the ravages of digital time.

In a sense, none of this is new. Charlie Chaplin burned the negative of his 1926 film A Woman of the Sea as a tax write-off. Many more films have been lost through accident, negligence or plain indifference. During a heatwave in July 1937, a Fox film vault in New Jersey burned down, destroying a majority of the silent films produced by the studio.

Back then, at least, cinema was defined by its ephemerality: the sense that a film was as good as gone once it left your local cinema. Today, with film studios keen to stress the breadth of their back catalogues (or to put in Hollywood terms, the value of their IPs), audiences may start to wonder why those same studios seem happy to set the vault alight themselves if it'll help next quarter's numbers.

Question 18

Which of the following statements is suggested by the sentence "Back then, at least, cinema was defined by its ephemerality: the sense that a film was as good as gone once it left your local cinema"?
  1. A
    Today, films are expected to be available for a long time, since they are no longer tied solely to their stay at the local cinema.
  2. B
    Cinema is now no longer as ephemeral as it used to be earlier, because the technology used for creating and preserving films has improved manifold.
  3. C
    Presently, there is no reason why film studios should remove access to films once they have left the local cinema.
  4. D
    Around a century ago, people were more accepting of not having access to films once they left the local cinema.

Answer: (A) Today, films are expected to be available for a long time, since they are no longer tied solely to their stay at the local cinema. RC · Arts & Culture MCQ

Solution

  1. 'Back then' contrasts the past with today. Films used to be gone once they left the cinema, but now studios stress 'the breadth of their back catalogues'.
  2. So the sentence implies that films today are expected to stay available long after their cinema run, which is option A.
  3. B credits improved technology, which the passage questions. C is a normative claim, and D talks about people's attitudes, which the sentence does not address.

Question 19

"Netflix had begun editing old episodes of Stranger Things to retroactively improve their visual effects." What is the purpose of this example used in the passage?
  1. A
    To show a practice that justifies the fears of people who feel streaming services cannot be trusted to be custodians of cultural artefacts like film.
  2. B
    To show how unsubstantiated reports are leading to an increase in the level of distrust towards streaming services.
  3. C
    To show that art in the digital age, specifically film, is no longer sacrosanct, and may be changed to suit changing tastes or technology.
  4. D
    To show that streaming services are controlling access to the cultural commons rather than expanding it.

Answer: (A) To show a practice that justifies the fears of people who feel streaming services cannot be trusted to be custodians of cultural artefacts like film. RC · Arts & Culture MCQ

Solution

  1. The Stranger Things report appears alongside the HBO Max removals as news that 'seemed like vindication to those who had long warned' about streaming services.
  2. Its role is to give a practice that supports those people's fears that streamers are untrustworthy custodians of film, which is option A.
  3. D repeats the general warning, but editing old episodes is about tampering with content, not access. B misreads the parenthetical denial, and C draws a broader conclusion than the example supports.

Question 20

Which one of the following statements, if true, would best invalidate the main argument of the passage?
  1. A
    Improved cloud storage services have made it possible for movie collections to now be preserved in perpetuity, without the need to keep migrating the files.
  2. B
    Studios and streaming services have committed to giving customers perpetual and platform-independent access to the original digital content they have paid for.
  3. C
    Recent research has irrefutably proven that Blu-Ray discs have a shelf life of at least 100 years.
  4. D
    When moving to a different geographical location, customers can easily use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass geo-blocking and regain access to their content on any streaming service.

Answer: (B) Studios and streaming services have committed to giving customers perpetual and platform-independent access to the original digital content they have paid for. RC · Arts & Culture MCQ

Solution

  1. Main argument: whether through streaming, digital purchases or physical media, access to films is insecure because of platform decisions, rights rules, DRM and decay.
  2. B removes the core problem, because perpetual, platform-independent access to purchased originals undoes the insecurity the passage describes.
  3. A, C and D each fix only one sub-problem (data decay, disc lifespan, geo-blocking) and leave the rest of the argument standing.

Question 21

Which one of the following statements about art best captures the arguments made in the passage?
  1. A
    Works of art belong to the cultural commons and hence must remain available in perpetuity, irrespective of who pays for access to them.
  2. B
    In the age of online subscription services, it is time to change our understanding of classic works of art being primarily immutable and easily available to the public.
  3. C
    As art is increasingly created, stored and distributed digitally, access to it is counterintuitively likely to be made more difficult by the rapid churn in technology and the whims of host platforms.
  4. D
    Accepting retroactive changes to works of art is dangerous because it will encourage creators to not put enough effort into the original attempt, given that they can always edit or update their work later.

Answer: (C) As art is increasingly created, stored and distributed digitally, access to it is counterintuitively likely to be made more difficult by the rapid churn in technology and the whims of host platforms. RC · Arts & Culture MCQ

Solution

  1. The passage argues that digital distribution, though it seems to promise abundance, actually makes access fragile: removals, edits, DRM lock-in, format churn and data decay.
  2. C captures this irony: access becomes harder because of technological churn and the whims of host platforms.
  3. A is a normative 'must', B misreads the point, and D's argument about creator effort is never made.

Same concept in other years

See every question on Drawing out what the passage implies but never states — literature and the arts passages.

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More RC · Arts & Culture questions from CAT

All 41 RC · Arts & Culture questions asked since 2017.