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

The passage suggests that 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.

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Review the main point, and use notes or highlighted/underlined text in the passage to recall the author's attitude on this topic, and find the answer that best reflects your understanding of the main point/author's attitude

Answer Anticipation

For Author's Attitude questions, the answer choices tend to fall into one of two categories: two-word answer choices or opinion + detail answer choices. The former generally capture only the direction (positive/negative/neutral) and strength of the author's opinion. The latter generally captures the direction and strength in one word, then fills in some details in the passage. This one falls into the former camp.In this case, the question asks about the author's attitude on Bearden's innovative painting techniques. That's a very broad topic in this passage. Now, we could go back to the passage to review all of the author's stated opinions. However, this approach would require us to re-read and review a lot of the passage. That's an inefficient use of our limited time, so it's not the approach we recommend. Instead, we'll recall the author's main point, as well as the corollary points the author makes. Then, let's work our way through the answer choices, tabling any that don't align with the author's views and examining any answer choice that conforms to those views.

Answer choices

  1. A
    admiration for how they Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem

    (A) Is this consistent with the author's main point or your understanding of the author's attitude?

    Yes! This is the author's main point, more or less. The author concludes that Bearden used innovative painting techniques to represent the African-American experience with novel depth and complexity. So, the author must admire Bearden's use of innovative painting techniques to communicate his "rich vision of African-American life."

    But if you're not convinced that the author admires Bearden's techniques, the passage abounds with tonal phrases that express that admiration. We should have highlighted words like "triumph" (P1, S1), "innovative" (P1, S2), and "powerful" (P2, S2). All of these confirm the author does admire Bearden's work. (A) is definitely what we are looking for. We can select it and wrap up this passage.

  2. B
    appreciation for how they Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Is this consistent with the author's main point or your understanding of the author's attitude?

    Nope. The author doesn't claim that Bearden's paintings were "simple and direct." As our main point says, he represented reality with depth and complexity. We can eliminate (B) without checking the passage.

  3. C
    respect for how they Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Is this consistent with the author's main point or your understanding of the author's attitude?

    This answer choice is a bit of an oxymoron, isn't it? If the author believes Bearden's techniques are truly innovative, then the author probably doesn't respect how those techniques are rooted in a tradition. We'd expect the author to respect those techniques' novelty and originality. And is it possible for painting techniques to be rooted in a group's experience? We're not sure that makes much sense.

    Even with these issues, this is a popular selection. This answer choice is tempting because we do know that his paintings "reflected the multiple rhythms, textures, and mysteries of life" (P4, S5). But the passage doesn't say that they reflect the African-American life specifically, just life in general. Plus, the phrase "rooted in" is probably a bad match for the passage's "reflects." The former would seem to indicate Bearden's techniques originated with the African-American experience (if that even makes sense). We don't know where Bearden got those techniques, just what he did with them once he had them.

    If you are still struggling to eliminate (C), consider the difference between it and (A). (A) talks about the richness of Bearden's depiction of the African-American experience. The depth and complexity of Bearden's vision is a huge focus in the passage, and (A) does a much better job of capturing that.

  4. D
    concern that they draw Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Is this consistent with the author's main point or your understanding of the author's attitude?

    Nope. According to our note for the third paragraph, he author talks about the ways in which Bearden's techniques help him communicate his social and political message (P3, S4). There's nothing to indicate that these techniques are distracting. (D) is out.

  5. E
    strong conviction that they Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Is this consistent with the author's main point or your understanding of the author's attitude?

    No. Neither the main point nor our notes discuss the author's thoughts on other artists. Indeed, the author never talks about what other artists should do. (E) is out.

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