PrepTest 146, Section 4, Question 12
Most sociohistorical interpretations of art view a body(442 more words not shown)
The primary function of the(4 more words not shown)
- Areject a possible(9 more words not shown)
- Bidentify assumptions relied(12 more words not shown)
- Cpresent an argument(9 more words not shown)
- Doffer additional evidence(8 more words not shown)
- Edraw a definitive(9 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The third paragraph explains why critics favor art that expresses patrons' ideals, then asks what must be true for that analysis to work. The elite needs an identifiable, somewhat shared outlook, and the artist must not be subverting the patron's values.
What we’re looking for
That is our prediction: the paragraph lays out conditions the interpretive approach depends on. The second paragraph distinguished kinds of patronage; the third examines the assumptions behind analyzing one of them.
Working the answers
- A
No possible reply to the opening view is presented and rejected here. The author is identifying what the favored analysis requires, not answering a defender's response to a previous argument.
- BCorrect
Paragraph 3 directly introduces the conditions under which this approach can succeed. A recognizable elite identity, some consensus and the absence of artist subversion are conditions needed to infer the elite's ideology from the art.
- C
The second paragraph's distinction between two ways of producing art is not undermined. The third builds on that distinction by examining the kind the critics prefer. Its critical role does not make it an attack on the preceding paragraph.
- D
The paragraph does not add another historical example or observation to establish the earlier distinction. Its job is to state what the analysis would have to assume, not supply additional evidence for a conclusion already reached there.
- E
Stating necessary conditions is not the same as showing that those conditions are satisfied and drawing a definitive conclusion. The paragraph opens questions about the analysis's foundation rather than settling them.
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