PrepTest 120

[lcid:3577] Prep Test 120 LSAT — Reading Comp — S2 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 6-11  .        The Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976,  . initiated by Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong  . Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Generalization about influence on art; One example
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Generalization - Cultural Revolution “has had lasting repercussions on Chinese art”
    • Example - Revolutionary Realism - Depict “truth” of socialist life, really distorted by political ideology

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Ironic generalization; Example
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Ironic - Cultural Revolution led to opposite effects of Revolutionary Realism
    • Example - Scar Art - Exiled painters depicted “scarred reality” of peasant life
    • Revolutionary Realism - public, monumental, universal; perfect society
    • Scar - private, mundane, particular; bleak reality

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Scar art leads to Native Soil
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Scar art - Co-opted and softened; many abandoned and formed…
    • Native Soil - Rural, but nostalgia for peasant life
    • Scar art focused on damage; Native Soil idealized peasant life
    • Author - Native Soil was trivialized to appeal to Western collectors

Main Point: The Chinese Cultural Revolution has had a lasting impact on Chinese art, promoting its own style (Revolutionary Realism) which caused reactions that led to art that didn’t promote the ideals of the Communist Party.

Key Lines?

Lines 1-5 - Generalization on influence of Revolution on art

Line 6; Lines 13-15 - Description of one type of art

Lines 16-20 - Ironic outcome of Revolution’s influence on art

Lines 29-33 - Description of another type of art

Lines 44-48 - Outcome of that second type

Lines 50-53 - Description of another type of art

Lines 56-60 - Outcome of that third type

Meta-Structure?

Influence on Art - Humanities passages sometimes focus less on the quality of art and more on the influences that led to certain developments, and this passage is an exemplar of this Meta-Structure. Here, the passage dives into how the Cultural Revolution has had a lasting impact on Chinese art. It then goes through three styles - the Revolutionary Realism that was a direct offshoot of the Cultural Revolution; the Scar Art that reacted to the biased images of Revolutionary Realism; and the Native Soil movement, which reacted against the co-opted Scar Art movement. When a passage falls into this Meta-Structure, the main point is usually more neutral, focusing more on the influence than on the Author’s opinion. Here, however, the Author does throw in some opinion. We see her call the later movements an ironic development (Lines 16-20), and the eventual co-opting of one of these movements unfortunate (Line 57). So the main point should focus on this influence while also incorporating the opinion statements, as in our summary.

Last Thoughts?

Whenever a passage talks about a style, movement, or artist, we should have a general sense of what works that fall into those would be like. We can almost guarantee questions about the descriptions and comparisons!

  • Revolutionary Realism (Lines 8-10; Lines 13-15; Lines 35-37; Lines 39-42) - This one is a little tricky because it talks about realism and truthfulness, but the latter is thrown in quotes, letting us know that it’s not meant literally. At the end of the day, the style is described as being distorted by political ideology, calling for universal and patriotic themes showing how perfect society was under Communist Party rule.
  • Scar Art (Lines 34-35; Lines 37-39; Lines 42-43) Bleak, with a focus on how hard rural life was
  • Native Soil (Lines 50-53; Lines 56-57) Rural themes, but idealized and filled with nostalgia

Question prompt

It can be inferred 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

Strategy Overview

Review what the Author says about the Cultural Revolution, then eliminate answers that line up with it

Answer Anticipation

These LEAST likely questions aren’t Cannot be True questions, as we’re not looking for something contradicted by the passage (though such an answer would be correct). The correct answer might just not have support in the passage! As such, we treat it as a Bizarro Must be True question.We know the Author discussed the Cultural Revolution in Paragraph 1, and that she argues it was a key influence on Chinese art, having “lasting repercussions.” There are a lot of details in Paragraph 1 on the Revolution itself, but let’s head back and check them as they come up in the answers rather than trying to review and memorize them now. Rather, we’ll focus on the overall argument - that it had a lasting impact on Chinese art, and that impact was often ironic in that it led to art that didn’t conform to its politics.

Answer choices

  1. A
    It had the ironic Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) (Lines 16-18) This answer reflects one of the two clear statements of Authorial opinion in the passage, calling out something as ironic, so we can eliminate it as being supported by the passage.

  2. B
    The art that was Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) (Lines 18-20) In the same sentence that we used to eliminate (A), the Author refers to the art of the Cultural Revolution as being monotonous, with other artistic movements flourishing in reaction to it. So this answer is also supported.

  3. C
    Much of the art Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) (Lines 13-15) This answer matches the Author’s description of Revolutionary Realism, so we can eliminate it.

  4. D
    Its effects demonstrate that Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem

    (D) (Lines 16-20) The Author does argue that the restrictive policies of the Cultural Revolution led to varied art forms. However, she never discusses liberal policies, let alone compares their effects to those of restrictive policies. And she discusses only one set of restrictive policies - hardly enough support for this broad answer.

  5. E
    Its impact has continued Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) (Lines 4-5) This answer reflects a part of the Author’s thesis, as expressed in Paragraph 1.

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