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Answer the following questions based on the passage given below.
The woman—suffrage campaign was indeed as much evangelism—a kind of social gospel—as it was politics. The copious documentation left behind in the wake of the suffragist movement recounts a story of missionary zeal, untiring political tuition, and a commitment to the conception of America as an experiment in civic justice. Underpinning this ideology were strands of American exceptionalism laced with occasional self—righteousness and appeals to female moral superiority revealing suffragists as having an eclectic social philosophy oscillating between the poles of preaching women's superior virtues and proclaiming their essential humanity.
Leading suffragists exploited political rhetoric, effectively turning the great American narratives, biblical and civic, stories of new beginnings, brave struggles, repentance and renewal, to their own purposes. Southern suffragists often coupled panegyrics to woman's purity with appeals to racial and ethnic prejudices. One leader argued openly in 1903 that "enfranchisement of women would insure immediate and durable white supremacy. "
Educated adults of the day—and the suffragists were overwhelmingly drawn from the ranks of the educated—knew their Bunyan, understood that overcoming adversity was a test of character, and even believed that overcoming adversity was the way character was formed. Above all, suffragists saw in the vote a great engine for social change, a way to tap woman's greater capacity for human empathy, her status as "the mother of the race. " Women, they believed, would vote en bloc, for the good of humanity, and the world would look different forever. Some argued that if the moral power of women could be utilized through the ballot, human suffering would be alleviated; social wrongs would be righted; a new democratic age would begin.
No consensus has been reached on the dimensions of the gender gap, its importance or its potential for affecting the outcome of elections or public policy more generally. Our attention should be focused not so much on whether women will vote or govern differently from men, but rather on why suffrage is so vital to a democratic society. Suffrage is to the individual what sovereignty is to states. Civic emancipation, of which the franchise is the indispensable feature, is the only sure and certain basis for democratic political life even if it cannot accomplish every good end.
Even more moderate suffragists believed that American women who know history "will always resent the fact that American men chose to enfranchise Negroes fresh from slavery before enfranchising American wives and mothers, and allowed hordes of European immigrants totally unfamiliar with the traditions and ideals of American government to be enfranchised and thus qualified to pass upon the question of the enfranchisement of American women. " Suffragists sought to capitalize on this anti—immigrant, anti—black sentiment in order to promote their own ends—a story that has been told, and lamented, by later generations of feminists and historians.
Q1MULTIPLE CHOICE
In the context of the passage, political rhetoric, as it is used in the second paragraph, refers to:
Answer: B
Jump back to the lines referred to in order to get a sense for what this piece of the passage says. Woman suffragists used rhetoric to advance their cause. Do a bit of paraphrasing of (B) to realize that it says the same thing.
Wrong answers:
(A): Out of Scope. There's no mention of any set of guidelines.
(C): Distortion. Though they may have turned history to their own purposes, there's no indication that they attempted to deceive or confuse the public.
(D): Out of Scope. This is simply misinterpreting the phrase, punishing those who guessed without reading in context.
Q2MULTIPLE CHOICE
With which of the following statements would the author most likely agree?
Answer: D
Make sure that the author's main arguments are kept in mind before jumping to the answer choices. Only one of the four remotely approaches anything the author argues, and all of paragraph 4 is spent arguing it. Choice (D) is simply a summary of the paragraph.
Wrong answers:
(A): Faulty Use of Detail. Suffragist exploitation of ideals is mentioned, but the author has no negative take on it. Suffragist exploitation of prejudices is both mentioned and lamented, but this doesn't tie into the use of American ideology.
(B): Opposite. The author argues just the opposite: they were well—educated (paragraph 3), and they did see a parallel between the prejudices.
(C): Opposite. The author points out that this belief turned out not to be true after all, so they couldn't possibly have been ahead of their time in believing it (paragraph 4).
Q3MULTIPLE CHOICE
Based on information as presented in the passage by the author, which of the following statements is definitely NOT true?
Answer: C
A scattered detail question. Eliminate answers, keeping an eye out for one that might look bad from the start. The three wrong ones can be knocked out with a good map, and (C) jumps out as not supported by the passage because the author argues in paragraph 4 that just the opposite happens. This point has come up in several questions already. When the author's opinion or the facts differ from the opinions of the passage's subjects, there are sure to be questions that test whether you've picked up on the difference.
Wrong answers:
(A): Opposite. Mentioned in paragraph 3
(B): Opposite. Mentioned in paragraph 5
(D): Opposite. Mentioned in paragraph 2
Q4MULTIPLE CHOICE
If given the chance to read various opinions on the topic of the suffragist movement, the author would most likely agree with which of the following statements?
Answer: B
Keep the author's main points in mind, as well as the direction the previous questions have taken. Good societies and democracies are mentioned in paragraphs 3 and 4; use them to evaluate (B). The suffragists believed that their success would ensure a better society as women voted together. This didn't happen, but it did, according to the author, advance the cause of democracy. (B) is more or less a summary of these two paragraphs.
Wrong answers:
(A): Opposite. The author suggests that woman suffragists were well—aware of the principles and effects of the techniques they used.
(C): Opposite. The author argues in paragraph 3 that suffragists predicted female voting patterns incorrectly.
(D): Opposite. The point of paragraph 4 is that democracy and society as a whole benefited from the suffragist movement.
Strategy Point: If several previous questions have focused on one particular theme, later questions may do the same. Questions will repeatedly reward you for understanding just a few basic concepts.
Q5MULTIPLE CHOICE
The passage implies that modern—day feminists and historians would most likely feel that tactics used by suffragists were:
Answer: C
Find where the passage discusses "modern day feminists and historians, " or, if you don't remember the phrasing, where tactics are discussed. Paragraph 5 has them both. Quickly reread the relevant text and paraphrase: The groups today are unhappy that suffragists used prejudice to advance their aims. The only answer choice that encapsulates this is (C).
Wrong answers:
(A): Opposite. They're considered invalid precisely because they hurt minority groups.
(B): Out of Scope. Since women did get the right to vote, this answer choice makes no sense.
(D): Opposite. Even if one assumes the views are considered ignorant, it's not because other groups were ignored. The suffragists took pains to pay particular (negative) attention to the victimized groups.
Answer the next 4 questions based on the passage given.
Most sociohistorical interpretations of art view a body of work as the production of a class, generally a dominant or governing class, imposing its ideals. For example, Richard Taruskin writes in his Oxford History of Western Music that one of the defining characteristics of “high art” is that “it is produced by and for political and social elites.” What Taruskin and others fail to clarify, however, is that there are two different ways that art, historically, was “produced by and for political and social elites.”
The first way was for a member of the elite to engage a well-known artist to produce something for display. For instance, if one commissions a famous architect to design one's house, that may reflect great credit on one's taste, even if one finds the house impossible to live in. The second way was to create, or to have created, a work that expressed and mirrored one's ideals and way of life, like Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican apartmentscommissioned by Pope Julius II.
Sociohistorical critics like Taruskin prefer to deal with art produced the second way, because it enables them to construct a subtle analysis of the way such art embodied the ideology of the elite, whatever the identity of the artist. For this kind of analysis to work, however, it must be the case that the elite had a recognizable identity and displayed some kind of consensus about the world and the way life was to be lived, and it must also be the case that we can eliminate the possibility that artists subverted the ideals of the patron for their own reasons.
Historically, the two social classes able to commission art were the aristocratic, or governing class, and the well-to-do middle class, what used to be called the bourgeoisie. The taste of the aristocracy and the upper middle class has not always been apt to produce an art that endures. In his characterization of nineteenth-century English culture, cultural critic Matthew Arnold identified the aristocracy as Barbarians, interested largely in fox hunting and gaming, and the middle class as Philistines, obsessed with respectability. As a result, the more talented artists sometimes had to find a place in the margins of the establishment—engaged by a rich patron with eccentric tastes, for example.
Moreover, a great deal of art that went against the grain of elite values was paid for by the establishment unwillingly and with misgivings. Because some of this art endured, the sociohistorical critic, like Taruskin, must engage in an analogue of Freudian analysis, and claim that in hidden ways such art embodied the ideals of the elite, who were unaware that those ideals are revealed by work of which they overtly disapproved.
Q6MULTIPLE CHOICE
The passage suggests that Taruskin's position commits him to which one of the following views?
Answer: C
Option (a): We can’t make the inference that the passage suggests this about Taruskin’s viewpoint. The author quotes Taruskin as saying that “high art” is “produced by and for political and social elites.” Taruskin isn’t saying that the best work is done subversively.
Option (b): We can’t make this inference about Taruskin’s viewpoint. The author quotes Taruskin from his book The Oxford History of Western Music, so we don’t know what Taruskin thinks about artists working today.
Option (c): The passage supports this suggestion about Taruskin’s viewpoint. In the final paragraph, the author says, “[because] some of this [subversive/”high”] art endured, the sociohistorical critic, like Taruskin, must engage in an analogue of Freudian analysis, and claim that in hidden ways such [subversive/”high”] art embodied the ideals of the elite, who were unaware that those ideals are revealed by work of which they overtly disapproved.” This choice is a close match.
Option (d): The passage doesn't suggest that Taruskin is committed to this view. Nowhere in the passage does the author define the social class of the artists themselves—just that of their patrons. Notice that when the passage states high art is "produced by and for" elites, it counts patronage as production.
Hence, option (c).
Q7MULTIPLE CHOICE
The primary function of the third paragraph is to
Answer: B
Option (a): This isn’t the function of the third paragraph. The first paragraph argues that critics fail to recognize two distinct ways of approaching art analysis, and the third paragraph talks about the assumptions critics make when they interpret art as being merely an expression of elite ideals.
Option (b): This is the main function of the third paragraph. Here, the author explains the assumptions that sociohistorical critics are required to make if they analyze art as merely a vehicle for elite ideals. Critics have to assume that the elite “had a recognizable identity” and that artists never subverted elite ideals in their artwork.
Option (c): This isn’t the function of the third paragraph. The third paragraph builds on the information in the second paragraph about the two types of art production and explains why critics tend to focus on only one of them.
Option (d): This isn’t the function of the third paragraph; the second paragraph doesn’t offer a conclusion but instead describes two types of art production. The third paragraph begins to explain why the author takes issue with the sociohistorical approach to art analysis: it makes unwarranted assumptions.
Hence, option (b).
Q8MULTIPLE CHOICE
The author mentions "Raphael's frescoes in the Vatican apartments" for which one of the following reasons?
Answer: A
Option (a): This is the purpose of the reference to Raphael’s frescoes. The author offers two examples of different kinds of art production: first, patrons could commission a work for public display. Second, patrons could commission a work that “expressed and mirrored one's ideals and way of life” (the frescoes illustrate this second type). The author says that sociohistorical critics prefer studying the second type of production because it confirms their belief that art primarily reflected wealthy patrons’ ideals.
Option (b): This isn’t why the author refers to Raphael’s frescoes. Although the example is religious, the author doesn’t discuss the relationship of religion to the historical development of art. The author uses the frescoes as an example of art production where a patron (in this case, the Pope) commissioned an artwork that directly reflected his ideals.
Option (c): This isn’t why the author refers to the frescoes. The author presents two different types of art production, but doesn’t say which type of commission is “the most common.”
Option (d): This isn’t why the author uses this reference—in fact, the frescoes are an example of a situation that does fit the pattern the author says is preferred by sociohistorical critics. The author contends that these critics tend to analyze art production where patrons have commissioned a specific work to fulfill their vision, because it supports their claim that elite ideals predominate art.
Hence, option (a).
Q9MULTIPLE CHOICE
The passage suggests that Matthew Arnold would be most likely to identify which one of the following as the primary reason why, historically, people in the middle class became patrons of the arts?
Answer: D
Option (a): This doesn’t match what the passage tells us. We know that Arnold thinks the members of the middle class are “Philistines, obsessed with respectability.” This doesn’t suggest that the middle class is concerned with public benefits but instead that they are concerned with their own appearance and station in society.
Option (b): This doesn’t match what the passage tells us. We only know that Arnold thinks the members of the middle class are “Philistines, obsessed with respectability.” If anything, this implies that Arnold would say the middle class would imitate the tastes of the aristocracy.
Option (c): We can’t make this inference; we’re told that Arnold believed that the middle class are “Philistines, obsessed with respectability.” This is more about the benefits to one’s appearance and reputation through the spending of money than any anticipated financial gain from arts patronage.
Option (d): We can make this inference based on the information in the passage. Arnold refers to the middle class as “Philistines, obsessed with respectability.” If the middle class longed to be respected, it would follow, by Arnold’s logic, that they would use artwork as a tangible display of their sophistication.
