PrepTest 146

Correct. Question Type:
Argument Structure

Strategy Overview:
Review the role of the paragraph including Lines 18-19, then review the immediate context of the phrase in question to determine its role in the overall passage

Answer Anticipation/Relevant Lines:
Lines 18-19 are included in Paragraph 2, which we said was describing the "two ways." The two ways of what? Looking at the end of Paragraph 1, this is the two ways that art, historically, was produced for elites—something that Tarusking and others "fail to clarify" (Line 8).

Checking the immediate context, we can see that Raphael's frescoes are given as an example ("like"; Line 18). Without reading more context, we should guess that it's an example of one of the two ways that art was produced for elites, and reading from the beginning of the sentence, we can see that that is, in fact, the case—it's the "second way" (Line 16). That second way was an elite commissioning a work that "expressed and mirrored one's ideals and way of life."

While this could serve as the end of our anticipation, we haven't fully defined the role of this way—Paragraph 3 dives into it more. There, it's stated that Taruskin and others focus on this second way of art being created, and the Author thinks this is a problem. So we should incorporate that into our anticipated answer.

So Raphael's frescoes are an example of art commissioned to reflect the ideals of the patron, which is the way art was created focused on by Tarusking and others, who the Author thinks has an overly simplistic view of the history of art. Let's find an answer reflecting that.

Answer Explanation:
(Lines 16-19; Lines 20-21) Raphael's frescoes are listed as an example ("like") of the "second way" that art was created to reflect the ideals of elites—aka elitism. This is the way that critics like Taruskin "prefer to deal with art," so this is the correct answer.

Key Takeaway:
Note that the correct answer here includes context that happens after the sentence including the phrase in question—and that sentence is in the following paragraph! While not common, it's also not unheard of for a Meaning in Context question to pull in context from other sections of the passage—even much later than the following paragraph. The key is that the immediate context has to be referred back to by the later section in order to tie them together. Here, the sentence in question was tied to the following paragraph in that that paragraph started with a discussion about the "way" that was just mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Incorrect. (Lines 9-10) The two ways described in Paragraph 2 are introduced in the last sentence of Paragraph 1. There, it's noted that these are the two ways that art was produced for political and social elites. So while the Pope is a religious figure, he's included here as a member of the political and social elite, not as someone tied to religion.

Incorrect. (Lines 20-21) While Raphael's frescoes do serve as an example of a way that art was produced by and for political and social elites, it's never noted that this way was "the most common type." It's only noted that it's the type sociohistorical critics like Taruskin focus on—which may or may not mean that it's the majority of art.

Incorrect. (Lines 29-30) Subversion isn't mentioned until the end of Paragraph 3, and it's not tied back to Raphael's work, so this answer is incorrect.

Incorrect. (Line 16; Lines 20-21) Raphael's frescoes are an example of "[t]he second way," and sociohistorical critics "prefer to deal with art produced the second way," so this example does fit the pattern they prefer.