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

The primary function of 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 our note on the role of Paragraph 1 in the overall argument, then find an answer that most closely matches it

Answer Anticipation

After reading each paragraph, we should be taking a few seconds to note or reflect on its role. This helps us to track the Author’s argument, find details for questions, and directly answer Argument Structure questions such as this one.For Paragraph 1 here, we said: Generalization about influence on art; One example. That influence was the Cultural Revolution, and the generalization is that it influenced Chinese art for decades. The example brought up was the artistic style that the Cultural Revolution presented - Revolutionary Realism.Let’s find an answer reflecting this role in the overall argument.

Answer choices

  1. A
    introduce the set of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A matches the stem

    (A) Paragraph 1 does introduce a set of political ideas - those of the Cultural Revolution. And in discussing Revolutionary Realism, it introduces a set of artistic ideas, as well. The Author argues that the Cultural Revolution (and its associated Revolutionary Realism) has had “lasting repercussions on Chinese art,” and then it goes into two styles that grew in reaction to it - Scar Art, and Native Soil, each of which has a paragraph (more or less) dedicated to it. This answer captures the role of the first paragraph and correctly characterizes the rest of the passage, so it’s the correct answer.

  2. B
    acknowledge the inescapable melding Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited

    (B) Paragraph 1 discusses China starting in 1966, so this answer is too expansive in talking about China generally - there are thousands of years of history before then where art and politics might have been separate!

  3. C
    explain the transformation of Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) (Lines 1-5) The passage starts by discussing the impact of the Cultural Revolution on art, not on society generally. This answer is too broad.

  4. D
    present a hypothesis about Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) While the Author does discuss realism in the context of the different artistic styles mentioned in the passage, she doesn’t present a thesis about realism. Additionally, the passage doesn’t feature any type of debate over a hypothesis, as this answer describes (“refuted by”).

  5. E
    show that the political Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) (Line 5; Lines 16-18) While the Author argues that the Cultural Revolution has had a lasting impact on Chinese art, it doesn’t argue that Scar Art and Native Soil’s realism “originated” during the Cultural Revolution. In fact, Scar Art was from the ‘80s, and the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976; the Native Soil movement started even later than that.

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