PrepTest 146, Section 4, Question 7

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A

  This captures part of the fourth paragraph: wealthy classes commissioned art, and their tastes did not always produce enduring works. It leaves out the broader criticism of how sociohistorical critics interpret that art.

• B
  Correct

  “Overly simplistic” fits the cumulative objection. Who financed a work does not settle whether it expresses a whole class's ideals: prestige, eccentric patrons and artist subversion can complicate that inference. B captures the point supported by the different paragraphs.

• C

  The author distinguishes reputation-seeking from expressing ideals, but does not say patrons generally preferred the former to influencing art's development. Two possible motives do not establish which was more common. This also shifts the focus from the critics' interpretation to a broad claim about patrons' priorities.

• D

  This describes the final complication: critics explain apparently contrary works as revealing hidden elite ideals. It is part of the criticism, not the whole point. The earlier distinction between motives and the assumptions about a shared worldview also matter.

• E

  The second paragraph gives these two ways. But the author uses that distinction to develop a criticism of an interpretive approach. Stopping with the distinction leaves out what the rest of the discussion does with it.