Reading comp PrepTest 120 · Section 2 · Question 6

Passage

Questions 6-11  .        The Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976,  . initiated by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong  . Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Generalization about influence on art; One example
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Generalization - Cultural Revolution “has had lasting repercussions on Chinese art”
    • Example - Revolutionary Realism - Depict “truth” of socialist life, really distorted by political ideology

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Ironic generalization; Example
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Ironic - Cultural Revolution led to opposite effects of Revolutionary Realism
    • Example - Scar Art - Exiled painters depicted “scarred reality” of peasant life
    • Revolutionary Realism - public, monumental, universal; perfect society
    • Scar - private, mundane, particular; bleak reality

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Scar art leads to Native Soil
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Scar art - Co-opted and softened; many abandoned and formed…
    • Native Soil - Rural, but nostalgia for peasant life
    • Scar art focused on damage; Native Soil idealized peasant life
    • Author - Native Soil was trivialized to appeal to Western collectors

Main Point: The Chinese Cultural Revolution has had a lasting impact on Chinese art, promoting its own style (Revolutionary Realism) which caused reactions that led to art that didn’t promote the ideals of the Communist Party.

Key Lines?

Lines 1-5 - Generalization on influence of Revolution on art

Line 6; Lines 13-15 - Description of one type of art

Lines 16-20 - Ironic outcome of Revolution’s influence on art

Lines 29-33 - Description of another type of art

Lines 44-48 - Outcome of that second type

Lines 50-53 - Description of another type of art

Lines 56-60 - Outcome of that third type

Meta-Structure?

Influence on Art - Humanities passages sometimes focus less on the quality of art and more on the influences that led to certain developments, and this passage is an exemplar of this Meta-Structure. Here, the passage dives into how the Cultural Revolution has had a lasting impact on Chinese art. It then goes through three styles - the Revolutionary Realism that was a direct offshoot of the Cultural Revolution; the Scar Art that reacted to the biased images of Revolutionary Realism; and the Native Soil movement, which reacted against the co-opted Scar Art movement. When a passage falls into this Meta-Structure, the main point is usually more neutral, focusing more on the influence than on the Author’s opinion. Here, however, the Author does throw in some opinion. We see her call the later movements an ironic development (Lines 16-20), and the eventual co-opting of one of these movements unfortunate (Line 57). So the main point should focus on this influence while also incorporating the opinion statements, as in our summary.

Last Thoughts?

Whenever a passage talks about a style, movement, or artist, we should have a general sense of what works that fall into those would be like. We can almost guarantee questions about the descriptions and comparisons!

  • Revolutionary Realism (Lines 8-10; Lines 13-15; Lines 35-37; Lines 39-42) - This one is a little tricky because it talks about realism and truthfulness, but the latter is thrown in quotes, letting us know that it’s not meant literally. At the end of the day, the style is described as being distorted by political ideology, calling for universal and patriotic themes showing how perfect society was under Communist Party rule.
  • Scar Art (Lines 34-35; Lines 37-39; Lines 42-43) Bleak, with a focus on how hard rural life was
  • Native Soil (Lines 50-53; Lines 56-57) Rural themes, but idealized and filled with nostalgia

Question prompt

Which one of the Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: E

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Reiterate the main point as we summarized it after reading through the passage, then find the answer that best aligns with it

Answer Anticipation

For these title questions, we’re really looking for something that captures the main point, so we should start there.Humanities passages sometimes focus less on the quality of art or its innovative nature and more on the influences that led to certain developments, and this passage is an exemplar of this Meta-Structure. Here, the passage dives into how the Cultural Revolution has had a lasting impact on Chinese art.It then goes through three styles - the Revolutionary Realism that was a direct offshoot of the Cultural Revolution; the Scar Art that reacted to the biased images of Revolutionary Realism; and the Native Soil movement, which reacted against the co-opted Scar Art movement.When a passage falls into this Meta-Structure, the main point is usually more neutral, focusing more on the influence than on the Author’s opinion. Here, however, the Author does throw in some opinion. We see her call the later movements an ironic development (Lines 16-20), and the eventual co-opting of one of these movements unfortunate (Line 57). So the main point should focus on this influence while also incorporating the opinion statements:The Chinese Cultural Revolution has had a lasting impact on Chinese art, promoting its own style (Revolutionary Realism) which caused reactions that led to art that didn’t promote the ideals of the Communist Party.Let’s find an answer reflecting this main point.

Answer choices

  1. A
    "Painting and Politics: A Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 1-6) First, the passage discusses only one political influence on Chinese art - the Cultural Revolution. It also discusses Revolutionary Realism, which was a style in the ‘60s and thus not very contemporary.

  2. B
    "How Two Movements in Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 16-18) This answer gets the relationship backwards - the artistic movements were influenced by the Cultural Revolution, they didn’t influence/transform it.

  3. C
    "Scarred Reality: A Look Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) This answer references only one of the three art styles from the passage - Scar Art. It also focuses on rural life, not the depiction of it in art.

  4. D
    "The Rise of Realism Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) (Lines 32-33; Lines 50-53) While Scar Art is arguably more realistic than Revolutionary Realism, the Native Soil movement, with its nostalgic representation of rural life, isn’t necessarily more realistic than Scar Art (and is arguably less realistic). As such, we can’t say that the passage is about the “rise” of realism.

  5. E
    "The Unforeseen Artistic Legacy Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem

    (E) (Lines 1-5; Lines 16-18) This answer brings up the central topic of the passage - how the Cultural Revolution has had lasting repercussions on Chinese art. And the Author characterizes the impact on later art as ironic, which means that it runs counter to expectations - which would make it unforeseen. This answer captures the main point of the passage, so it’s correct.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 13%
  2. B 6%
  3. C 5%
  4. D 12%
  5. E Credited 64%

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