Seem specific to me?

Bonjour Katy, Here is the explanation in the lesson: Cases expressing opinions or simple statements (adjectives) about pre-mentioned things, look at these rules: a - c'est for general, unspecific statements and opinions Tu étudies la science ? - Oui, c'est passionnant ! Do you study science? - Yes, it's thrilling! C'est vraiment magnifique ici! It's really beautiful here! Miam, c'est délicieux! Yummy, it's delicious! In those cases, we're expressing opinions or statements that refer to the thing generally: we're saying science in general is thrilling, or that something unspecified is great or delicious. Therefore, here we use c'est to say it is. I tend to be in agreement with you; however, I think that there is nothing mentioned in advance of the two phrases, i.e. le paysage or la soupe makes it more general in the terms of the lesson. Bonne chance,

Thanks for your response. It is not very helpful though as you just copied the text from the lesson which I had already read several times. And then you said you that you seem to agree with my question. Hopefully someone else will come along and give a real answer.

Bonjour Katy,
My apologies that you did not find my answer helpful. So, here are some other links that you might possibly find more helpful. The first is by Laura, another of the Progress with Lawless French and Kwiziq team.
https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/cest-vs-il-est/
http://laits.utexas.edu/tex/gr/pro3.html
I find at times, when I do not fully understand the lesson on one site, if I look at a similar lesson from another author, that can give me a different perspective and better understanding.
J'espère que cela vous aiderait.
Bonne chance.

Hi Katy, you use "il/elle est...." if there is something specific it could refer to. In the sentence "It is beautiful here" the "it" doesn't refer to anything specific (grammatically speaking, not geographically). To make it specific, you'd need some contect such as: "Tu vois cette maison? Elle est magnifique!" Here you use elle because it refers to a specific object (the house) which is mentioned before. -- Chris (not a native speaker).