Reading comp PrepTest 156 · Section 1 · Question 14

Passage A

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • Question, insufficient answer
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
  • Question: Does taxpayer-funded for the arts serve a public interest?
  • Why most important — Only way to justify it
  • Insufficient answer: Lots of orgs, so diverse audiences (why not privately fund?)

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Author's answer
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
  • Answer - Left to private sector, art won't be equitably distributed
  • No money or regions without cultural offerings left behind

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • Why the arts are important
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
  • Build social ties
  • Participating also leads to civic engagement (Examples - Voting/volunteering)

Passage B

Paragraph 1

• Paragraph note
  • Requirement for taxpayer funding of arts
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
  • Benefit: Incidental benefits (Example: Tourism)
  • Requirement: Direct benefit to public — More people enjoy better art

Paragraph 2

• Paragraph note
  • Why art funding doesn't meet requirement
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
  • Better art isn't guaranteed
  • Can't guarantee more widespread enjoyment
  • Why? Selection committees pick subsidized art, so most people don't enjoy it

Paragraph 3

• Paragraph note
  • Comparison, thought experiment, conclusion
• Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
  • Comparison: National defense — Art different (can't buy own defense)
  • Thought experiment: Give people money to buy their own art (ridiculous)
  • Wrong for government to choose what people like, so not justified

Main Points:

Passage A: Public funding of the arts is justified because the private sector can't equitably distribute art, and engagement with art increases civic activities and social bonds.

Passage B: There can be no justification for the public funding of the arts because it's wrong for the government to decide what artistic experiences people should enjoy.

Key Lines (P(aragraph)X, S(entence)Y)

Passage A:

• P1, S1 - Question
• P1, S2 - Requirement for answer
• P1, S3 - Insufficient answer
• P2, S1 - Answer
• P2, S2 - Reason
• P3, S1 - Another reason

Passage B:

• P1, S2 - Requirement
• P2, S1 - Failure to meet requirement
• P2, S4 - Reason for failure
• P3, S6 - Another reason for failure
• P3, S8 - Conclusion

Relationship — Opposing Viewpoints: While only Passage A explicitly asks a question, both passages provide an answer to it. Passage A's author argues that "public support of the arts is, in fact, eminently justifiable" (PA, P2, S1), while the author of Passage B comes to the opposite conclusion in stating that "there can be no justification for arts subsidies" (PB, P3, S8). Since they hold opposed opinions on the same topic — a topic that is central to each passage — we should view those opinions as the main points of each passage, as reflected above. (This is reinforced by the Question/Answer Meta-Structure analysis for Passage A, below.)

Question/Answer (Passage A): Passage A opens up with a question. This generally means that the author will provide an answer or a set of answers, and the preferred answer is the main point. Here, although the author raises an insufficient answer in P1, S3 ("not enough to claim"), the author does eventually answer that public subsidies for the arts are justified (P2, S1). After that, the author provides reasons for why that's the case. As such, the author's support for public arts subsidies is the main point, reflected in our summary above.

Examples (Both): Both passages bring up an example to prove a minor point. In Passage A, the author cites two examples of the types of civic activities that become more common for those engaged in the arts (PA, P3, S3). Passage B sees the author bringing up an example of an incidental benefit of support of the arts - tourism (Pb, P1, S1). Since these are limited and incidental to the main point, we should expect, at most, one question on each of them.

Comparison (Passage B): The author of Passage B compares national defense to culture at the beginning of Paragraph 3. This contrast is used to prove the main point — there are differences between the two that justify public spending on the former but not the latter. This comparison builds directly to the main point of the argument, so we should expect a question on it.

Last Thoughts?

Passage B starts with an interesting feature — a concession. Normally, we don't see authors lead with exceptions or concessions to their argument. However, this author concedes there is "admittedly" a benefit of public subsidies for the arts. And yet, the author's main point is that there is"no justification" for such subsidies. Since this is an odd way to start off a passage, there might be an Argument Structure question about it, so we should think about why he does it. Since it's a concession, it's likely to show that he has some respect and understanding for the opposing argument to strengthen the audience's willingness to listen to his argument against it. That's the general idea behind a concession, and it makes sense here.

Also, we know that the authors reach the opposite conclusion on the same central topic, so we should expect questions about the differences between the two passages!