PrepTest 107, Section 2, Question 1
For some years before the outbreak of World(434 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- AAlthough they flourished(28 more words not shown)
- BThe work of(36 more words not shown)
- CThe work of(33 more words not shown)
- DArt critics who(28 more words not shown)
- EArt critics who(30 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
We've already predicted the main point: these painters deserve credit for their artistic innovations, rather than their supposed ability to predict political and social events. We want some version of that distinction.
Working the answers
- A
Their break with tradition is real, but this stops at the background. It leaves out the writer's central judgment about why their work matters. Developing new ways of looking at the world isn't itself the problem with A; that can describe an artistic achievement.
- BCorrect
The work was looking forward artistically, rather than intentionally forecasting social changes. That fits the writer's emphasis on “exceptional aesthetic innovations” and the example of Picasso and Braque concentrating on representation and form. The wording differs from our prediction, but the distinction is the same.
- C
This gives their ability to predict social change part of the credit. That's the interpretation the writer challenges, even though C also includes the artistic achievement we want.
- D
The writer explicitly allows artists to “speculate about the future” and express that vision in their art. We aren't rejecting prophecy because art is incapable of expressing a future vision.
- E
Nothing establishes that those upheavals were impossible to predict. The objection is to treating these painters' work as intentional social prophecy, not to the possibility of anyone predicting a political event.
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