Reading comp PrepTest 146 · Section 4 · Question 10

Passage

 .       Most sociohistorical interpretations of art view a  . body of work as the production of a class, generally a Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Humanities

Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • A view is presented along with a shortcoming in it
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Most interpretations (e.g., Taruskin) - Art produced for ruling class, reflecting their ideals
    • Shortcoming - Two different ways that happens
Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • The two ways are described
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Way 1 - Rich person pays well-known artist to make a display piece (e.g., a house)
    • Way 2 - Rich person pays for work that expresses ideals (e.g., Pope hiring Raphael for apartment pieces)
Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • The interpretations go with one way, showing assumptions
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Taruskin et al focus on Way 2
    • Assumptions - The elite have a consensus set of values; the artists don't subvert these values
Paragraph 4
  • Paragraph note
    • Breakdown of social classes and the implications for art (Assumption 1 is bad)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Upper class (Arnold) - Ruling and middle class (philistines)
    • Implication for art - Talented artists found room at margins (e.g., rich eccentric person)
Paragraph 5
  • Paragraph note
    • How artists subverted ideals of elite (Assumption 2 is bad)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Artists went against elite values, and some survived
    • Author - Taruskin bends over backwards to explain this unconvincingly ("hidden ways", "unaware," work of which they overtly disapproved")
Main Point:
Taruskin's and most sociohistorical analysis of art focuses on just one way that art was made, and it rests on two assumptions that don't reflect the full reality of the situation.

Key Lines:
Lines 1-3 - The opposing point is introduced
Lines 7-10 - A shortcoming of that point is introduced
Lines 8-9 - Upcoming structure is introduced
Lines 11-19 - The structure plays out
Lines 20-21 - The shortcoming is put in context
Lines 24-30 - Two assumptions of the view are noted
Lines 37-41 - Assumption 1 is undermined
Lines 41-44 - An implication of that is noted
Lines 45-47 - Assumption 2 is undermined

Meta-Structure:
View/Criticism - The Author presents the view of "[m]ost sociohistorical" interpretations of art (Lines 1-3), but she then pivots to showing how it neglects one of two ways that art was created (Lines 20-21), and even that rests on assumptions (Lines 24-30) that are wrong (Lines 37-41; Lines 45-47).

Undermining Assumptions - The Author notes two assumptions of the opposing point—two things that "must be" (and "must also be") true for the argument to hold together. When presenting assumptions—especially to a view that she clearly disagrees with—it's likely that the Author will go on to undermine or offer evidence against those assumptions. Here, even though it doesn't explicitly say that that's what it's doing, being primed to look for it makes it a lot easier for us to spot that the next two paragraphs each tackle one of them. The first assumption was that "the elite had...some type of consensus about the world" (Lines 26-27) and the following paragraph talks about how the elite were split, with neither group particularly interested in saying something important with art (Lines 39-41). And The second assumption was that artists didn't subvert the ideals of their patrons (Lines 29-30), which Paragraph 5 undermines by bringing up the art that in fact did cut against these values and were made "unwillingly and with misgivings" by the establishment (Lines 45-47).

Extended Example - The passage is about most sociohistorical interpretations of art, but it uses one person/example to "put a face" to this argument—Taruskin. Since he's an example of this type of analysis, he's not necessary in any main point or big picture questions, as the passage is about more than just his analysis.

Last Thoughts:
The two local structures here (two ways in Paragraph 1 and 2; two assumptions in Paragraphs 3-5) will likely help us work through the questions. Be sure to note such defined structures when they show up!

Question prompt

The passage raises all Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

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

Question Type

Humanities

Answer choices

  1. A
    artists who subverted the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 29-30; Lines 45-47) The Author points out that the current interpretations assume that such artists didn't exist before she points out that they did, so this answer is present in the passage as a complication for those interpretations. That makes it wrong in this Bizarro question.
  2. B
    patrons who had eccentric Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 25-27; Lines 41-44) The Author points out that the current interpretations assume that the elite has a "consensus about the world," and she then uses the eccentric patrons on the margins of the establishment as a means of undercutting that assumption.
  3. C
    patrons whose taste was Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 33-36) The Author brings this up when discussing the social classes that traditionally commissioned art, so we can rule it out.
  4. D
    patrons who bought artwork Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    Correct. Question Type:
    Bizarro Must Be True

    Strategy Overview:
    Either review our notes on the shortcomings that the Author pointed out and then head to the answers, or head to the answers and use our notes to eliminate answers that show up in the passage—either is a viable strategy

    Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
    For this question, we could either anticipate specific answers based on our notes, and we should have notes for these answers since the Author's main point was that the sociohistorical interpretations had shortcomings. Or we could rely on our notes as we work through the answers.

    While either is a viable strategy, you'd likely want to check the answers back against the passage anyway, so we're going to hop straight into the answers without much of an anticipation.

    Answer Explanation:
    There's no discussion of reselling art for any reason, let alone for profit, so this answer is correct in this Bizarro Must Be True question.

    Key Takeaway:
    In general, for Must Be True questions (including Bizarro ones), you're going to want to actually have a line cite for the answers that you're selecting (or ruling out, in the Bizarro case). As such, when it's not asking about something specific, you should generally, at most, review the main point before heading straight to the answers.
  5. E
    patrons who unwillingly bought Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 29-30; LInes 45-47) The Author points out that the current interpretations assume that artists didn't subvert the ideals of their patrons, but she then undermines this by highlighting that a "great deal of art" did just this, and the patrons supporting it did so "unwillingly and with misgivings."

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 2%
  2. B 2%
  3. C 2%
  4. D Credited 91%
  5. E 2%

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