Reading comp PrepTest 145 · Section 3 · Question 12

Passage

Questions 7-13  .        It is commonly assumed that even if some  . forgeries have aesthetic merit, no forgery has Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Author questions a common assumption about forged art (never as good as the art by the original artist) with an example (van Meegeren's Vermeer forgery fooled everyone)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Common assumption:
      • Forgeries don't have as much artistic value as original (first sentence)
    • Author's view:
      • Critics and specialists can be fooled by talented forgers (second sentence)
    • Example of forgery that fooled people, according to the author:
      • Han van Meegeren's Emmaus was initially forged as a Vermeer and seen as one of Vermeer's finest works by experts (some even after forgery revealed) (third through last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "commonly assumed" (first sentence); "even the most prominent art specialists can be duped" (second sentence); "Astonishingly" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Philosophers' view, questions raised by example (Are forgeries worse? Are we right to change our minds about forgeries?) and Lessing's answer previewed
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Philosophers' view:
      • Given the praise, van Meegeren's work must have had aesthetic merit (first sentence)
    • Author's questions:
      • Is forgery inherently worse? Are we right to change our minds once we learn an artwork is forged? (third and fourth sentences)
    • Author's view:
      • Lessing has "convincing answers" to these "difficult questions" (second and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "raises difficult questions" (second sentence); "convincing answers" (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Lessing's answers (even beautiful forged art is artistically worse because it lacks originality)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Lessing's view:
      • Forged art — even accomplished, beautiful forged art — is worse because it lacks originality, and originality is one of the fundamental parts of artistic merit (first, third, and fourth sentences)
    • Example of a forged art that is accomplished/beautiful, according to Lessing/the author:
      • van Meegersen's work, which has great composition, technique, and use of color (second sentence)
    • Comparisons, according to Lessing:
      • Forged art is worse than original art (first sentence)
      • A distinction is drawn between aesthetic value (how a painting looks) and artistic value (which also includes a painter's originality) (fourth sentence)
      • Forgeries can be great aesthetically, but they don't have originality (Vermeer presented new way to see; van Meegeren copied) (fourth and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "brilliant" (second sentence); "flawless, even beautiful" (second sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Author applies Lessing's view to van Meegeren (came 300 years after Vermeer and lacks historical significance)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Even if Emmaus is good aesthetically, it's not original and thus lacks the historical significance that made Vermeer a great artist (first through last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "undoubted master of Vermeer's innovative techniques" (first sentence); "truly impressive and historic achievement" (second sentence); "nothing new or creative" (second sentence); "lacks the historical significance that makes Vermeer's work artistically great" (last sentence)

Main Point: Forgeries might have aesthetic value, but they don't reflect an original view of the world, so they lack artistic value.

Meta-Structure?

Question/Answer: This passage best fits the Question/Answer Meta-Structure.* In a Question/Answer passage, the author will pose a question early on before spending the rest of the passage attempting to answer that question. In this passage, the author poses two questions in the second paragraph: "Is forgery inherently worse?" and "Are we right to change our minds once we learn an artwork is forged?" The author then invokes Lessing, a philosopher who "convincing[ly]" answered these questions, before outlining Lessing's answers throughout the rest of the passage.

In a Question/Answer passage, the main point is generally the answer with which the author agrees. The author ultimately endorses Lessing's answers, so we made those answers the crux of our anticipated main point.

*We debated over whether to call this a Generalization/Example passage. After the all, the author proves a general point about artistic forgeries (they're worse because they lack originality) with an example (van Meegeren's forgery of Vermeer). We ultimately sided with Question/Answer, but if you want to call this a Generalization/Example passage, you have our blessing.

Example: We could surely call this a Generalization/Example passage; but if we didn't, the example is the most prominent minor Meta-Structure in this passage. The author returns to the van Meegeren example multiple times in this passage, so we should expect several questions about it.

Last Thoughts?

Be careful with examples discussed throughout the passage, as there are two primary ways that such examples can be used. Sometimes, the example is the main point, and the passage is about that specific example. Other times, as in this passage, the point is more general, with the example being used to highlight that general point. Here, the author starts with a general discussion of forgeries and then shifts into discussing van Meegeren's Emmaus as an example of that. As such, Emmaus isn't a part of the main point, and we can select answers that don't bring it up.

Also, don't forget that the author brought up a common assumption, so we should know how the author eventually feels about it. But be careful, as there's a subtlety to it! The common assumption is that forgeries don't have as much "aesthetic merit" as an original (P1, S1). It would be easy to say that the author thinks this assumption is wrong, but they don't. In fact, the author brings up the possibility that at least one forgery was "aesthetically superior" to the original (P4, S1). The author questions the assumption by making a distinction the assumption doesn't consider — the difference between aesthetics and art (P3, S4). And from this, the author shows that the assumption is right but not the relevant question — forgeries can be aesthetically superior, but they can't be artistically superior because they lack originality.

Finally, as with any passage that makes a distinction, let's always think about it as we read through the answers. It's common for answers to be right except for failing to use the right "part" of the distinction. Here, the author made a point of distinguishing between artistic value and aesthetic value, and so we should expect some answers to be wrong because they use the wrong one of those terms.

Question prompt

The passage most strongly 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

Remind ourselves of the main point of the passage, then head to the answers, focusing on those that line up with the main point and then using our notes/the passage to find the correct answer

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us to infer, based on the entire passage, a statement that must be true. Such questions can be very challenging. These questions provide little indication as to the topic of the correct answer or where it’ll show up in the passage. Moreover, the correct answer probably won't restate something from the passage. Instead, the question will likely require us to draw a connection between a few different pieces of information.We’ll need to rely on our big-picture understanding of the passage to answer these questions. We should start by reminding ourselves of the main point (either by reviewing what we said after reading the passage or by rereading our answer to the main point question). From there, we can head to the answer choices. If something in an answer choice doesn't seem familiar and isn’t reflected in our notes on each paragraph, we shouldn’t check the passage to see if it was mentioned. Instead, we’ll table it and move on to the next answer choice. If something seems inconsistent with the main point, we can eliminate it. If something seems familiar, consistent with the main point, or reflected in our notes, we’ll use our notes/highlights/underlines to find the part of the passage that proves the answer choice must be true. If we can find that confirmation, we’ll select that answer choice and move on.

Answer choices

  1. A
    In any historical period, Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Is this consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    No. Our notes don't discuss how forgeries are "classified" or historical periods in particular. This answer also doesn't line up with the main point, which established a general rule about principles that would presumably require the definition of "forgery" to be fixed. Moreover, this answer choice uses the bold, SCOTUS-y language ("any," "considerable") that's hard to support and thus unlikely to appear in the correct answer. For these reasons, we should resist the urge to check the passage and eliminate — or at least table — (A).

    Besides, we wouldn't find support for (A) if we re-read the entire passage. The passage provides no indication that there have been different definitions of "forgery" over the years.

  2. B
    An artist who uses Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Is this consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Nope. Neither the main point nor our notes suggest that using another artist's techniques would make one a "forger." For this reason, we should resist the urge to check the passage and eliminate — or at least table — (B).

    Besides, we wouldn't find support for (B) if we re-read the entire passage. Lessing and the author distinguish between aesthetic value, which is related to technique, and artistic value, which is related to an original vision (P3, S4). They argue that forgeries lack the latter, but they don't tie forgeries to lacking innovative techniques, making this answer is unsupported.

  3. C
    A successful forger must Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Is this consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Negative. This contradicts the passage's main point. Lessing and the author argue that an original vision is what gives art its artistic value (P3, S4), and so they'd say that a forger can't originate a new artistic vision — in doing so, they'd be creating an original work with artistic value. Therefore, we can eliminate (C) without checking the passage.

  4. D
    Works of art created Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Is this consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Again, no. Neither the main point nor our notes discuss how artists' original vision evolves over their careers. For this reason, we should resist the urge to check the passage and eliminate — or at least table — (D).

    Besides, we wouldn't find support for (D) if we re-read the entire passage. There's no discussion of the likelihood of an original vision coming from an artist at different times in their career, so this answer is unsupported.

  5. E
    A painting can be Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem

    (E) Is this consistent with the main point or reflected in our notes?

    Yes! This is reflected in the Emmaus example in our notes. It also has appealingly weak, easy-to-support language ("can"), which makes it more likely to be correct.

    If we need to remind ourselves about that example, we can return to the first paragraph. There, the author says that it was "painted under the forged signature" of Vermeer (P1, S3) — not that it was a copy of a Vermeer. Emmaus, based on the description in the first paragraph, was an original work of van Meegeren that he signed with Vermeer's name — not a copy of a painting by Vermeer that van Meegeren did and passed off as the original. So, even though this answer messes with how most people define a forgery, it is supported by the passage and, therefore, correct.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 16%
  2. B 10%
  3. C 8%
  4. D 10%
  5. E Credited 55%

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