PrepTest 107, Section 2, Question 2

Working the answers

• A

  The critic doesn't say these techniques came from Renaissance discoveries that had gone unused. Mentioning the Renaissance elsewhere doesn't supply this history of the artists' methods.

• B

  The prophetic-power part fits, but “because” introduces an explanation we haven't been given. The critic doesn't say skill with traditional techniques produced the ability to foresee events. Praising a prediction and explaining how the painter made it are different claims.

• C

  This fits the writer's evaluation better. Being ahead of one's time in artistic style isn't the political and social prophecy that the critic prizes.

• D
  Correct

  I hesitate over “insights into the European political situation”: that's more specific than the claim about prophetic power I predicted. But the preceding sentence identifies the supposed prophecies as anticipating political and social upheavals during and after the war. The critic then calls that prophetic power the works' chief value. Shrewd political predictions fit the achievement this critic admires.

  We don't have to treat this as a quotation of the critic's explanation. The question asks what the critic would most likely agree with. D describes the supposed insight involved in those political prophecies; B invents a separate connection between prophecy and technical skill.

• E

  Calling prophecy the chief source of value doesn't make the styles historically insignificant. Something can rank second and still be important. The critic doesn't dismiss their contribution to later art.