Reading comp PrepTest 139 · Section 3 · Question 8

Passage

Questions 8-14  .       When Jayne Hinds Bidaut saw her first tintype,  . she was so struck by its rich creamy Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Jayne Hinds Bidaut revived tintype to photograph insects from her collection.
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Bidaut drawn to tintype because it contains detail and dimensionality (fourth sentence)
      • Paper prints too flat (third sentence).
    • Tintype is an image captured on a thin, coated piece of iron (fourth sentence)
    • Author’s attitude: “struck by” (first sentence); “set out” (second sentence); “too flat” (third sentence); “detail and dimensionality” (fourth sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Dan Estabrook uses albumen prints and tintype in nostalgic fantasy.
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Estabrook deployed albumen prints and tintype to create old-looking images, imagining leaving them at flea markets and antique shops to create past that never existed (second sentence)
    • Author’s attitude: “inspired a fantasy” (first sentence); “to be discovered” (second sentence); “bygone time” (second sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Growing trend among photographers: reviving old photographic techniques.
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Types of old practices being revived: tintype, daguerrotype, albumen, pinhole cameras, emulsions from nineteenth-century recipes
    • Widespread popularity of old techniques
    • Author’s attitude: “forward into its past” (first sentence); “coax new expressive effects” (second sentence); “so diverse” (third sentence); “groundswell” (fourth sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Current appeal of old techniques is their unreliable, idiosyncratic results.
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Old techniques were prone to accident and results not easily replicable; that was why they were abandoned in the past (first sentence, third sentence)
      • Unique results of old techniques are why modern photographers like old methods; they can put an individual stamp on each picture (second sentence, sixth sentence)
        • Example: Estabrook (seventh sentence), who uses old techniques to create illusion of age in his prints (eighth-tenth sentences)
      • Author’s attitude: “heavily hands-on” (first sentence); “source of their appeal” (second sentence); “prime reason” (third sentence); “as a curiosity” (fifth sentence); “the very uncertainty” (sixth sentence) “embraces accident” (eighth sentence); “illusion of antiquity” (eighth sentence); “project onto it” (ninth sentence); “sense of nostalgia” (tenth sentence)

Paragraph 5

  • Paragraph note
    • Photographers motivated by desire to create unique works and recover intimacy with photography.
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Old techniques offer photographers opportunity to create unique works made during a specific moment in time (second sentence)
    • Old techniques allow photographers to be more hands-on than usual in today’s mass media world (third sentence)
    • Author’s attitude: “preoccupation with contingency” (first sentence); “virtually guarantees” (second sentence); “indelible mark” (second sentence); “recovering an intimacy” (third sentence)

Main Point:

In a surprising trend, many photographers are embracing old, idiosyncratic, and labor-intensive photographic techniques in an attempt to revive intimacy with the photographic process and produce unique, one-of-a-kind images.

Key Lines?

Paragraph 1, Sentence 4 (P1 S4) - Aesthetic appeal of tintype for Bidaut

P2 S1 - Nostalgic appeal of albumen prints and tintypes for Estabrook

P3 S3 - Trend among photographers toward old techniques

P4 S1-2 - Reasons old techniques are appealing

P4 S7 - Estabrook’s reasons for using old techniques

P5 S2-3 - Two motivations of photographers using old techniques

Meta-Structure?

Phenomenon/Explanation - This passage uses a Phenomenon/Explanation Meta-Structure. The author begins with two examples: Bidaut and Estabrook, and then states the wider trend that those two photographers exemplify, namely, a growing usage of old image-making techniques among modern artists. Next, the author returns to Estabrook’s aesthetic and cultural preoccupations before arguing that the photographers engaging in the old technique trend are motivated by two important things: a desire to create one-of-a-kind images that could only have been made in a specific time and place and a desire to rediscover intimacy with the photographic process that is missing from today’s mass media-dominated world.

The minor Meta-Structure evident in this passage is Example. The author uses the examples of Bidaut and Estabrook to illustrate why photographers utilize old techniques and then names various photographic techniques that are being revived to give the reader an idea of what kinds of methods the avant-gardists are using.

It could be argued that the main Meta-Structure of this passage is in fact Generalization/Example, because the passage is heavily laced with examples. However, the point of those examples is not just to illustrate a general statement, that photographers are returning to old techniques, but to illuminate why photographers are doing this in an otherwise heavily technology-laden artistic landscape. The author paints this trend as a surprising mystery, not just a statement of fact. As a mystery, this trend deserves an explanation, which is what the author gives in the final paragraph and what the examples of Bidaut and Estabrook illustrate.

Last Thoughts?

Understanding the author’s explanation of the photographers’ motivations for using old techniques is key to understanding the author’s argument. The examples of Estabrook and Bidaut are important not only because they illustrate the trend toward old techniques but because they show the diversity of motivations behind artists’ usage of those techniques: Bidaut is trying to accomplish a specific aesthetic goal and Estabrook is trying to create new experiences for people viewing old-looking (but actually modern) photographs. The factors drawing such diverse artists together are the desire to create unique images and the desire to recapture a sense of hands-on creativity with a medium that is becoming increasingly impersonal.

Question prompt

In the context of Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: A

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

Strategy Overview

Review the purpose of the paragraph in which the expression is found, including the expression in question, then use the purpose and the immediate context to define the expression's meaning.

Answer Anticipation

This question asks what the author meant when they used the phrase “on the verge of a filmless, digital revolution.” This phrase appeared in the third paragraph, so we should start by defining the role of that paragraph, as that can sometimes provide contextual clues about the author's meaning. Our note for the third paragraph is, “Growing trend among photographers: reviving old photographic techniques.” So, the third paragraph pointed out the surprising movement among photographers that the examples of Bidaut and Estabrook illustrated.Now, turning our attention to the expression in question, it highlights the current state of technology in the field of photography, and puts that technology in high contrast to the antiquated practices described in the passage. The phrase in the question stem thus points out how puzzling the trend toward old techniques is: why, in an era of digital photography, would artists be using old, cumbersome, troublesome techniques to make their pictures? This phrase introduces the mystery of the old-technique phenomenon among photographers, and its role is to describe the context in which photographers are returning to the old, outdated practices. Let’s find an answer reflecting that role.

Answer choices

  1. A
    highlight the circumstances that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem

    (A) Does this answer choice accurately describe the role of the phrase in question (providing the context in which photographers are embracing antiquated techniques)?

    Yes. This answer choice captures the purpose of the phrase in the question stem, namely, to contrast strongly the modern context in which photographers are returning to nineteenth-century techniques with the old character of those practices. This answer choice describes this contrast as “ironic,” which also indicates why this passage is properly characterized as a Phenomenon/Explanation passage; the growing trend toward using old, idiosyncratic photographic methods is taking place as technology is making possible the abandonment even of film.

  2. B
    indicate that most photographers Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this answer choice accurately describe the role of the phrase in question (providing the context in which photographers are embracing antiquated techniques)?

    No. There is no indication in the passage that photographers are “wary” or distrustful of advanced photographic techniques, so this answer choice lacks support in the passage. Indeed, because the passage doesn’t even hint that any photographers are distrustful of advanced techniques, it cannot possibly be said that most photographers feel that way, as this answer choice says.

    In addition, as the author points out in the fourth and fifth paragraphs, the photographers discussed in the passage embrace old techniques because they like the hands-on aspect of those methods and the opportunity they offer to create unique images (P4 S1-2, P5 S1-3), not because they feel negative toward new techniques.

    We can eliminate this answer choice.

  3. C
    reveal the author's skeptical Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this answer choice accurately describe the role of the phrase in question (providing the context in which photographers are embracing antiquated techniques)?

    No. The author is generally favorable toward photographers’ usage of old photographic techniques, as we can see from phrases like “new expressive effects” (P3 S2) and “recovering an intimacy” (P5 S3). They don’t criticize or express skepticism toward the usage of these techniques at all. So this answer choice lacks support in the passage and we can eliminate it.

  4. D
    suggest that most photographers Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this answer choice accurately describe the role of the phrase in question (providing the context in which photographers are embracing antiquated techniques)?

    No. It is not because they believe digital technology lacks merit but because they believe that old photographic processes offer something different that the photographers discussed in the passage are embracing old photographic techniques (P4 S1-2). Also, nowhere in the passage does the author say that the photographers in question don’t use new photographic techniques; they say that they use old ones for the reasons the author discusses. For all we know, Bidaut, Estabrook and the others may be enthusiastic users of new techniques as well as old ones, which would contradict this answer choice. Perhaps these photographers see merit in both new and old techniques.

    Because it lacks support in the passage, we can eliminate this answer choice.

  5. E
    imply that the groundswell Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this answer choice accurately describe the role of the phrase in question (providing the context in which photographers are embracing antiquated techniques)?

    This answer choice lacks support in the passage. In fact, the author’s use of the term “groundswell” in P3 S3 seems to indicate that the author believes this trend is more than a fad. So we can eliminate this answer choice.

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A Credited 90%
  2. B 3%
  3. C 2%
  4. D 3%
  5. E 2%

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