Reading comp PrepTest 120 · Section 2 · Question 8

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: B

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

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Review the styles in the passage to see how they addressed realism, then find an answer reflecting it

Answer Anticipation

Discussions of realism were spread throughout the passage, so we should have some type of systematic approach for dealing with this question. Since the structure and argument largely revolve around the three styles of art, let’s approach it by thinking about how realism was a focus of each.For Revolutionary Realism, the “realism” is right in the title! However, the “reality” it depicted was “distorted by political ideology” (Line 15), so it wasn’t particularly accurate. Scar Art, on the other hand, depicted the “scarred reality” that the artists had actually seen during their exile (Lines 32-33). However, that realism was “co-opted for political purposes” (Lines 45-46), giving rise to the Native Soil movement, which featured idealization and nostalgia (Line 51; Line 56-57), so another drop in realism.Let’s find an answer reflecting any or all of these details!

Answer choices

  1. A
    The artists who became Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 44-50) First, the passage notes that Scar Art became co-opted, resulting in people leaving it, and a continued preoccupation with rural life led to the Native Soil movement. That’s not the same as saying the Native Soil movement was a reaction to Scar Art. Second, even if we draw that connection, the Native Soil movement reacted to the co-opted nature of Scar Art, not to its styles and techniques. This answer is therefore wrong.

  2. B
    Chinese art has encompassed Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) (Line 15; Lines 32-33; Lines 45-46; Line 51; Lines 56-57) Revolutionary Realism used a distorted form of realism to extol the Communist Party. Scar Art used bleak reality to convey the world that peasants actually lived in. The Native Soil movement idealized and held nostalgia for peasant life. Each of these had a different conception of realism based on the political or artistic statement they were trying to make, so this answer is correct.

  3. C
    The goals of realism Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) (Line 51; Lines 56-57) While an argument can be made that Scar Art did advance realism, the “nostalgia” and “idealizing traditional peasant life” of the Native Soil movement seems to be a step back from the goal of depicting reality.

  4. D
    Until the development of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) The only style of Chinese art mentioned as being before the Scar Art movement is Revolutionary Realism, which grew out of the Cultural Revolution of 1966. That leaves literally thousands of years of art that might have focused on rural life! Since the passage doesn’t discuss any pre-Cultural Revolution art, this answer is unsupported.

  5. E
    Unlike the art that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) (Lines 32-33) The Author says that Scar Art painters focused on the “scarred reality” of peasant life, so they likely considered their art realist art.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 6%
  2. B Credited 62%
  3. C 7%
  4. D 24%
  5. E 1%

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