Q14

[agneskozera]

I was off on this question. Can you please explain how to arrive at the correct answer "A" regarding author's attitude?

[zee.brad]

First paragraph, first sentence, author treat RB's work as "a double triumph", so that pretty much set a base tone for this passage, which is positive, appreciation I guess.

Then the second paragraph, author was primarily talking about the technique that RB pioneered. And the third paragraph, author was addressing the question that how the technique that RB pioneered helped his work exploring African-American experience.

So, combine the base tone that the author regarding RB's work, which is positive, appreciation, and the third paragraph, how RB's technique helped RB's work. We can infer that author's attitude regarding RB's technique was admiration how it helped RB's work, which is answer choice A

[daniel]

First paragraph, first sentence, author treat RB's work as "a double triumph", so that pretty much set a base tone for this passage, which is positive, appreciation I guess.

Then the second paragraph, author was primarily talking about the technique that RB pioneered. And the third paragraph, author was addressing the question that how the technique that RB pioneered helped his work exploring African-American experience.

So, combine the base tone that the author regarding RB's work, which is positive, appreciation, and the third paragraph, how RB's technique helped RB's work. We can infer that author's attitude regarding RB's technique was admiration how it helped RB's work, which is answer choice A

I don't agree that it is easy to differentiate between "admiration" (A), "appreciation" (B), and "respect" (C), and I believe it is dangerous to eliminate (B) and (C) on the basis of these attitudes alone. This was a difficult question for me, but I was able to eliminate the incorrect choices based on the unsupported claims that are made following the initial attitude indicator.

(A) The correct answer. We know that the author of the passage believes that Bearden communicated a rich vision of African-American life from the following references: "varieties of African-American experience" (lines 6-7), "mosaic of the African-American experience" (line 55), and "African-American experience in depth" (line 53).

(B) Unsupported. We don’t know whether the author believes that Bearden’s paintings represent simple and direct social critiques (this part of the answer is unsupported). This answer choice is attractive, because it uses some of the same words or ideas that are reflected in the passage, but these concepts are combined in a way that is not actually supported: "transform complex social realities" is reminiscent of "metamorphosis" (line 13) and "complex social realities" (line 32).

(C) Unsupported. Similar to (B), this answer choice uses some phrases from the passage, but they are used in a way that is not actually supported: "rhythms and textures of African-American experience" is reminiscent of "reflected multiple rhythms, textures, and mysteries of life," but there is no support for the claim that Bearden’s paintings are "rooted" in these concepts.

(D) Wrong attitude. The author does not express concern.

(E) Out of scope. The author does not suggest that Bearden’s techniques should be more widely used by other artists.

As noted above, both (B) and (C) use wording that is similar to what appears in the passage, but these words are used in a way that is not supported by the passage. Thus, they were difficult to eliminate on the first pass. Additionally, the correct answer (A) expresses an idea that can be inferred from the text, but uses a wording that does not actually appear in the text: "rich vision."

I would appreciate any feedback on my explanations above; as I mentioned, this was a difficult question for me, definitely the most difficult on this passage, if not on the entire section. It think it's because there were so many attractive answers presented for this one.