discrepancy vs ambiguity

Question

Blockquote

Which word is appropriate for the blank at the end of this sentence and why?

The question of forgery in photography has lately become nontrivial. Prices for vintage prints (those made by a photographer soon after he or she made the negative) so drastically ballooned in the 1990s that one of these photographs might fetch a hundred times as much as a non-vintage print of the same image. It was perhaps only a matter of time before someone took advantage of the ______________ to peddle newly created "vintage" prints for profit.

A) Discrepancy

B) Ambiguity

The definition of discrepancy is given as follows or to have a good view it is here

Blockquote DEFINITIONS OF: discrepancy 1 n a difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions Synonyms: disagreement, divergence, variance Types: allowance, leeway, margin, tolerance a permissible difference; allowing some freedom to move within limits Type of: difference the quality of being unlike or dissimilar n an event that departs from expectations Synonyms: variance, variant Type of: departure, deviation, difference, divergence a variation that deviates from the standard or norm

The meaning which fits here is the difference between conflicting facts and claims, which is clearly the case here. Again the meaning of ambiguity is here. In the last meaning it is given that an expression whose meaning cannot be determined from its context. I can also extrapolate this definition to fit in this particular scenario here. Why this vintage prints were sold at such high prices against the non vintage ones itself couldn't be clearly understood! So I thought that both the words have a chance in this blank and hence having a confusion.

Answer 1

Your answer is: discrepancy

Look at these few lines:

Prices for vintage prints (those made by a photographer soon after he or she made the negative) so drastically ballooned in the 1990s that one of these photographs might fetch a hundred times as much as a non-vintage print of the same image.

See the content in bold. It refers to the fact that vintage prints of an image would result in a drastic price difference as compared to a non-vintage print. This drastic difference in prices points to a discrepancy, which someone would misuse to make profit by peddling so-called "vintage" prints (notice the use of quotes to question the authenticity of such prints).

You could argue the case for ambiguity, suggesting that there is ambiguity as to whether a print is vintage or not, but then when you compare this ambiguity with the discrepancy I described earlier, you'll see that discrepancy does fit better.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Ambiguity is when a term may reference more than one thing, and it is not clear which it is referring to. For instance, "please buy me a bat" may be requesting a wooden rod or perhaps a flying nocturnal mammal.

A discrepancy is when one thing does not match something else, due to a mistake or foul play. For instance, if my checkbook balance did not match my bank statement, there is a discrepancy.

Interestingly, neither discrepancy nor ambiguity seems to be a particularly good fit here. "Illicit opportunity" seems more appropriate, but they're probably going for discrepancy.