PrepTest 140
[lcid:3659] Prep Test 140 LSAT — Reading Comp — S4
Reading comp
Passage
Questions 1-6 . African American painter Sam Gilliam (b. 1933) . is internationally recognized as one of the foremost .
Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Humanities
Paragraph 1
By breaking from his contemporaries and working against expectations for African American artists, Sam Gilliam's Color Field abstractions were able to better capture the nuance of the African American experience through creating a mood.
Key Lines:
Lines 12-16 - Gilliam's motivation is discussed, and his work is compared to his contemporaries
Lines 21-15 - An example of the other style
Lines 28-34 - What Gilliam wanted from his art
Lines 36-39 - Gilliam vs. expectations
Lines 53-59 - The Author's thesis on what Gilliam's work demonstrated
Meta-Structure:
Exploration of importance of an artist. This is a common topic/argument in RC.
Last Thoughts:
The passage goes into a lot of detail on several art styles—the Color Field style (Paragraph 1), the abstract expressionism it grew from, the more representative works of Gilliam's contemporaries, and the two "types" of Gilliam's work. We'll likely get questions about these, so it's important to be generally aware of the styles and also the differences. A good way to do this is to rely on examples as they're described and, for ones that don't have examples, picture something that fits the general description! Luckily, here, most have examples.
Paragraph 1
- Paragraph note
- Intro of artist and background on his style
- Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
- Sam Gilliam - 50s and 60s; DC; Color Field style
- Color Field style - grew from abstract expressionism, from minimally representative abstractions to completely nonrepresentational
- Paragraph note
- Gilliam's motivation and a comparison to other African American contemporaries
- Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
- Other African American artists - representational, political
- Gilliam - Motivated as a reaction to contemporaries; their art didn't have room for subtlety or growth
- Example of contemporary - Collage of images from magazines
- Gilliam - Wanted something more evocative of complexity
- Paragraph note
- Expectations and Gilliam's development of style
- Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
- Broken expectation - African American artists will make "explicitly political art"
- Progression - Painted and folded canvases; to loose canvas draped in room (sculptural quality) like hanging clothes
- Thesis - Gilliam advanced view that the African American experience was best represented indirectly through mood
By breaking from his contemporaries and working against expectations for African American artists, Sam Gilliam's Color Field abstractions were able to better capture the nuance of the African American experience through creating a mood.
Key Lines:
Lines 12-16 - Gilliam's motivation is discussed, and his work is compared to his contemporaries
Lines 21-15 - An example of the other style
Lines 28-34 - What Gilliam wanted from his art
Lines 36-39 - Gilliam vs. expectations
Lines 53-59 - The Author's thesis on what Gilliam's work demonstrated
Meta-Structure:
Exploration of importance of an artist. This is a common topic/argument in RC.
Last Thoughts:
The passage goes into a lot of detail on several art styles—the Color Field style (Paragraph 1), the abstract expressionism it grew from, the more representative works of Gilliam's contemporaries, and the two "types" of Gilliam's work. We'll likely get questions about these, so it's important to be generally aware of the styles and also the differences. A good way to do this is to rely on examples as they're described and, for ones that don't have examples, picture something that fits the general description! Luckily, here, most have examples.
Question prompt
The passage most strongly
Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right
Credited answer: B
The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.
Question Type
Humanities
Answer choices
-
Aderisive condescension
Why choice A is not credited
Incorrect. This answer is too strong. While Gilliam had a lot of issues with their work, "derisive condescension" would require a lot more loaded language. He would have to mock or belittle their work instead of criticizing it. It's the difference between him saying, "This work is so bad that even a child could do better," (derisive condescension) and what is stated in the passage. -
Bopen dissatisfaction
Why choice B matches the stem
Correct. Question Type:
Must Be True
Strategy Overview:
Review the relevant section, focusing on strength of opinion and tone
Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
This question is asking about Gilliam's viewpoint, so we should check our notes to see where that showed up. And we can see that Gilliam's view on his contemporary artists was described in Paragraph 2.
There, it's noted that he "found their approach" to be conservative, to lack subtlety, and to leave little room for innovation (Lines 16-21). His reaction against this was part of the motivation for his own work (Lines 12-16). So we can say that Gilliam had a lot of problems with their work to the point that he adopted a different style in reaction to it. Let's find an answer reflecting that attitude.
Answer Explanation:
(Lines 12-21) The passage establishes that Gilliam found their approach too conservative/limited, and his own style was, in part, a reaction against it. Since he "found" their approach lacking, he was open with it, and in trying to move past its limited nature to a "more expressive" (Lines 31-32) style, he must have been dissatisfied with it. This answer matches the strength, tone, and language in the passage, so it's correct.
Key Takeaway:
Be very careful in these attitude questions—in general, the most strongly negative and most strongly positive answers are wrong. This is especially true when there's an emotional element to the language used to describe the attitude. -
Cwhimsical dismissal
Why choice C is not credited
Incorrect. There's no whimsy in the passage—that would require some type of humor or playfulness. -
Dcareful neutrality
Why choice D is not credited
Incorrect. (Lines 16-21) Gilliam offers a lot of criticism of his contemporaries, so he's definitely not neutral. -
Emild approval
Why choice E is not credited
Incorrect. (Lines 16-21) This answer highlights a positive opinion, and the passage highlights only critical views held by Gilliam.