PrepTest 108, Section 1, Question 2
Painter Frida Kahlo (1910–1954) often used harrowing images(450 more words not shown)
With which one of the(18 more words not shown)
- AThe psychoanalytic interpretations(9 more words not shown)
- BPolitical and psychoanalytic(7 more words not shown)
- CRecent political interpretations(12 more words not shown)
- DUnlike the political(12 more words not shown)
- EKahlo's mythic status(21 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
My first prediction is that the personal side has received plenty of attention, while the political side deserves more. That's the contrast in the opening. But the choices don't simply repeat it, so we'll need to consider what the two approaches contribute.
Working the answers
- A
We aren't told that the personal interpretation challenges the political one. The writer adds political meaning without discarding the meaning connected to Kahlo's suffering.
- BCorrect
I initially hesitate because complementary isn't the comparison I predicted. It means the approaches work together to give a fuller understanding, not merely that they're different.
Paragraph 3 supplies the connection: the images convey both Kahlo’s effort to survive and Mexico’s pursuit of nationhood. The same imagery carries both meanings. That's a positive reason to see the interpretations as complementary, beyond simply having no evidence of a conflict.
- C
No revision by psychoanalytic critics is described. Less attention to political content doesn't establish that recent political readings have changed anyone's interpretation.
- D
The political reading uses biographical facts too: Kahlo's activism and her Marxist and nationalist commitments help explain the images. Biography isn't exclusive to the personal reading.
- E
The mythic status is mentioned, but it has the wrong explanation here. The ending describes Kahlo as a legendary embodiment of nationalism (paragraph 4). That connects the status to political identity, not psychoanalytic content.
More Author's Opinion questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Author's Opinion questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.