PrepTest 140, Section 2, Question 26
People may praise the talent of a painter(47 more words not shown)
The argument proceeds(1 more words not shown)
- Ausing a claim(10 more words not shown)
- Bappealing to an(9 more words not shown)
- Cexplaining a historical(9 more words not shown)
- Dappealing to a(10 more words not shown)
- Econsidering historical context(7 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
If all you wanted was an exact picture of a scene, why insist on a painting when a photograph could provide one?
That's the author's response to the praise of realistic painting. Painting has survived alongside photography, so the author concludes that an exact visual copy isn't the only thing people appreciate. That is a sensible line of thought: the survival of the art form gives us a reason to look beyond accurate representation when describing its appeal.
What we’re looking for
The question asks how the argument proceeds. I don't need a technical label in advance, but I do need to know what is evidence and what is being established. Painting's continued existence is the reason given; a claim about people's artistic preferences is the point supported. We aren't deciding whether those preferences are good or bad.
Working the answers
- A
The author doesn't make a claim about what most people appreciate and then use it to establish a rule about artistic value. The opening says people may praise realism and dismiss abstraction. The conclusion concerns what people actually appreciate, not a principle saying what art ought to be valued.
- B
There is no aesthetic principle offered to defend people's tastes. The author isn't saying people are right to prefer one kind of art. The argument tries to establish something about the content of their preferences: accurate depiction cannot be all they care about.
- C
This switches the direction. It would start with known artistic preferences and use them to explain why painting survived photography. Here, painting's survival is taken as the historical fact, and the author uses it as evidence about the preferences. The subject matter fits, but the support relationship runs the other way.
- DCorrect
The historical fact is that photography has not entirely displaced painting. The claim supported is that people appreciate more than an exact replica of a scene in a painting. The author reasons that if accurate copying were the only appeal, photography would have replaced painting; its failure to do so supports the claim about a broader appeal.
- E
Historical context isn't being used to justify people's preferences. The author doesn't say that a preference is defensible because of when or where it arose. As with B, “defend” gives the argument a job it isn't doing. D accurately describes using a historical fact as evidence about what people appreciate.
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