Reading comp PrepTest 136 · Section 3 · Question 1

Topic: Humanities

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • Critics, background, and the Author’s view on Sembene
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Critics - Sembene’s primary characteristic = sociopolitical commentary
  • Background - Trained in Moscow; from Senegal
  • Sembene (Goal) - Not entertain, raise social awareness
  • Author - Original filmmaking = adapting Western film to West African culture

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Similarity - West African storytelling - characters/motifs
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Examples - Tree (motif); trickster (character)
  • Characters = collective ideas/attitudes facing archetypical problems (Example)

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • Similarity - Dilemma tales - Structure
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Dilemma tale - Audience debates/decides outcome
  • Sembene - Open-ended plots with several alt endings (and freeze frames)
  • Examples

Paragraph 4

• Paragraph note
  • Similarity - Oral tales - Journeys that change protagonist (and viewer)
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
  • Movies - Emerging social consciousness from change
  • Critics - Opposites are from Marxism
  • Author - Opposites are from African oral storytelling

Main Point: While critics focus on the Marxist influence on Sembene, his originality in filmmaking actually derives from adapting the Western medium of film to the storytelling traditions and cultural expectations of West Africa, communicating his social views to audiences there.

Lines 8-11 - The Author’s opinion on Sembene’s innovation

Lines 16-18 - One similarity backing up the Author’s opinion

Lines 33-38 - Another similarity

Lines 44-48 - Another similarity

Lines 54-58 - The Author contrasts her view with the critics

Innovative Artist - As with many Humanities passages, the Author here explains the innovative nature of an artist (“originality as a filmmaker”; Line 8). In this case, she argues that Sembene was original because he “successfully adapted film” (Line 9) to the “needs, pace, and structure of West African culture” (Lines 10-11). She then goes on, in the rest of the passage, to highlight three aspects of his filmmaking that are related to West African traditional storytelling. When a Humanities passage falls into this category, the innovative nature of the artist (and the innovation) make up the main point, as noted above.

Generalization/Examples//Comparisons - The Author sets out her general point in Paragraph 1 - Sembene is an original filmmaker because he adapted a Western cultural medium (film) to the needs, pace, and structures of West African culture. From there, she goes into three examples, comparing his films to African storytelling traditions - one in each paragraph. By using these specific examples (and examples within the examples) to prove the general point, the Author is using the Generalization/Examples Meta-Structure, with each Example serving as a comparison (specifically, a similarity). We should expect questions about these examples/comparisons, as both of those types of elements are frequently featured in questions!

NOT Defense from Critics - A common type of Humanities passage will defend an artist from what the Author believes is unfair criticism. While there are critics present in this passage, they’re not saying anything negative about Sembene. Rather, the Author is arguing a different point from the critics - she doesn’t think they’re unfairly criticizing him, but rather that they’re commentary misses a key aspect of his work.

Let’s not lose sight of the overall structure, with the intro paragraph providing a general argument that’s backed up by examples/similarities in each subsequent paragraph. That structure is going to help us identify relevant information - e.g., if a question asks about characters or motifs, we should head to Paragraph 2.