PrepTest 111

[lcid:3541] Prep Test 111 LSAT — Reading Comp — S2 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 7-14  .        The paintings of Roman Bearden (1914–1988)  . represent a double triumph. At the same time that Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Author on Bearden's two accomplishments (uses innovative painting techniques and expresses the variety of African-American experience)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of Bearden's two accomplishments, according to the author:
      • Innovating painting techniques and using art to explore the variety of the African-American experience
    • Author's attitude: "double triumph" (first sentence), "perfecting the innovative painting techniques he pioneered" (last sentence), "reveals an artist engaged" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Bearden's technical innovations (layered, fragmented style; transformed commonplace subjects; respect to craft)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Bearden had a "unique layered and fragmented style," which he used to transform everyday subjects (first sentence)
      • Bearden thought that artists must be aware of the "resources and limitations" of painting (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "unique layered and fragmented style" (first sentence), "the resourceful artist" (first sentence) , "pay their craft the respect ... energies" (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Bearden's representation of the African-American experience (revealed suffering and social reality of Depression-era subjects; muted colors)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • List of ways Bearden represented the African-American experience in his paintings, according to the author:
      • Bearden painted during the Great Depression, showing individual suffering (second and third sentences)
      • They used abstract but familiar settings to express a complex social reality (fourth sentence)
      • They used sad, muted colors to represent "moods of melancholy or despair" (fifth and last sentences)
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • Bearden's paintings went beyond the typical "protest painting" of this era by revealing individual human suffering (third sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "so passionately dedicated" (first sentence), "succeed so well" (first sentence), "powerful" (second sentence), "grim and brooding" (second sentence), "move beyond" (third sentence), "reveal instances of human suffering" (third sentence), "express the complex social reality" (fourth sentence), "without compromising their integrity" (fourth sentence), "important element" (fifth sentence), "also served as symbols" (last sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • More on Bearden's representation of the African-American experience (vividly represented happy scenes to depict fullness of African-American experience)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Bearden also painted happy scenes with the same complexity (first sentence)
      • Bearden helps us to see the richness and depth of the African-American experience (last sentence)
    • Comparisons, according to the author:
      • Bearden's art avoided cliches (like the ones in journalism & photography) (second sentence)
      • Bearden's art focused on the "poetry" — scenes of family, religion, and celebration — rather than the "prose" like other artists (third sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "same vividness" (first sentence), "world long hidden by the cliches ... photography" (second sentence), "insists that we truly see ... using the fresh light of his creative vision" (fourth sentence), "created strange visual harmonies" (last sentence), "reflected the multiple rhythms, textures, and mysteries of life" (last sentence)

Main Point: Roman Bearden used innovative painting techniques to represent the African-American experience with novel depth and complexity.

Meta-Structure?

Innovative Subject: This passage utilizes an Innovative [Subject] Meta-Structure. In such a structure, the author describes why something or someone was unique, pioneering, or disruptive. In this Meta-Structure, "[Subject]" is a placeholder for whatever the subject of the passage happens to be. The subject of this passage is an artist, so we can think of this as an Innovative Artist passage.

In passages that use an Innovative Subject Meta-Structure, the main point will be the author's opinion on the innovative subject. We should look for whether the author provides a conclusion that summarizes their opinion on the innovative subject. The first paragraph gives us a pretty good summary of the author's opinion, so we can use that as our anticipated main point. We could also condense that paragraph to make our own main point: "Roman Bearden used innovative painting techniques to represent the African American experience with novel depth and complexity."

Comparison: The most prominent minor Meta-Structure is the comparison. This isn't surprising. In an Innovative [Subject] passage, the author will need to compare the subject to others to show what makes their subject so unique. Here, the author compares Bearden to "protest paintings" and artists who tried to capture the "prose" (speech, presumably) of Harlem as opposed to its "poetry" (family life).

Last Thoughts?

Wow, that's a lot of author's attitude in that passage! Your passage should be striped with whatever color you use to highlight the author's tonal phrases. Clearly, the author is a fan of one Roman Bearden. This laudatory tone is typical of many humanities passages — especially those that use an Innovative [Subject] or Importance of [Subject] Meta-Structure. We'll get a few questions about the author's attitude, but don't expect any of them to be as obvious as "Which of the following best captures the author's attitude toward Bearden?" Instead, the questions will likely ask why the author liked Bearden and what the author thinks about other art of this era.

Question prompt

According to the passage, Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: C

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

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Refer to notes or what you highlighted/underlined to locate where the passage discusses Bearden's painting techniques, and refer to the relevant part of the passage as needed to find that answer choice that must be true

Answer Anticipation

For questions that ask us to find a specific detail mentioned in the passage, quickly finding and reviewing that piece of information is paramount. That is why we make brief notes describing the role of each paragraph and highlight or underline definitions and the minor Meta-Structures — doing so helps us find the salient information efficiently and reliably. Once we review that part of the passage, we can look through the answer choices to see which one is best supported by what we reviewed.Here, the question asks about Bearden's painting techniques. Where did those show up in the passage? Our notes tell us that's in the second paragraph. According to the note we made in the second paragraph, his techniques evinced a "layered, fragmented style," "transformed commonplace subjects," and displayed his "respect" for the craft. If you wanted to actually review the text, you could scan this short paragraph. You'll see that Bearden used a "unique layered and fragmented style" to make commonplace subjects "undergo a metamorphosis" (P2, S1). Let's see if we can find an answer choice that we can support with this information.

Answer choices

  1. A
    a commitment to calling Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this say that Bearden's techniques illustrate his "layered, fragmented style," how he "transformed commonplace subjects," or his "respect" for the craft?

    Nope. We reviewed the relevant paragraph, made our anticipation, and this isn't it. Let's cross off (A).

    Besides, we know that Bearden did depict human suffering (P3, S3), but the author never connects Bearden's techniques to that topic. There's nothing about suffering in the paragraph that describes his artistic techniques.

  2. B
    a desire to instruct Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Does this say that Bearden's techniques illustrate his "layered, fragmented style," how he "transformed commonplace subjects," or his "respect" for the craft?


    No. After reviewing the relevant paragraph, we formed an anticipation; this doesn't match that anticipation, so we can eliminate it.

    Besides, the passage never says Bearden wanted to help other painters. Sure, the second paragraph tells us something that Bearden knew to be true for all painters (P2, S2), but that's not the same thing as wanting to instruct all painters.

  3. C
    the ability of art Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C matches the stem

    (C) Does this say that Bearden's techniques illustrate his "layered, fragmented style," how he "transformed commonplace subjects," or his "respect" for the craft?

    Yes! As we pointed out in our anticipation, the passage says that Bearden's techniques demonstrated "some of the ways in which commonplace subjects could be forced to undergo a metamorphosis" (P2, S1). The word "metamorphosis" is synonymous with "transformation," so (C) is directly supported by the passage. We can pick it and move on to the next question.

  4. D
    the importance of combining Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this say that Bearden's techniques illustrate his "layered, fragmented style," how he "transformed commonplace subjects," or his "respect" for the craft?

    Negative. We reviewed the relevant paragraph, know what we're looking for, and this isn't it. Let's eliminate (D).

    Besides, we were never told that Bearden combined his paintings with photography. In fact, the author suggests Bearden's painting is more complex than photography (P4, S2).

  5. E
    the need to emphasize Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this say that Bearden's techniques illustrate his "layered, fragmented style," how he "transformed commonplace subjects," or his "respect" for the craft?

    Nope. We reviewed the relevant paragraph to form a precise anticipation. Since this isn't that anticipation, it can go in the trash bin.In fact, the last paragraph says that Bearden concentrated on revealing life's poetry rather than its prose (P4, S3).

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