#9 - Global Reference, Main Point

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (B).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[mariahenain]

Hello. Could you please provide an explanation for the correct answer choice, B? I chose C and I'm not sure why Brown's argument is the main point.

[nicholaspavic]

Hello. Could you please provide an explanation for the correct answer choice, B? I chose C and I'm not sure why Brown's argument is the main point.

Hi maria,

It may help to view this passage as something of a book review with the author using Brown's book to illustrate the passage author's central point about "other factors" explaining "the characteristic features of Venetian narrative paintings with religious subjects produced during that period." Answer choice (B) reflects this central idea to the passage and does not limit itself solely to Brown's arguments and observation. In fact, the passage author appears to go well outside the information provided by Brown's book. So (C) is a far broader summary of the passage than just brown's book and still passes the fact test for the main point.

But also consider that Answer choice (C) is overly narrow. That is to say, it only addresses the idea that Tuscany and Venice were distiguishable. Though that's part of the argument, the author goes on to explain a much broader theseis, namely that Venice was different because of architecture, artist figure-drawing skills etc. and Answer Choice (C) does not address that at all, thus making (B) the better choice here.

Thanks for the great question and I hope this helped!

[am2gritt]

Hello. Could you please provide an explanation for the correct answer choice, B? I chose C and I'm not sure why Brown's argument is the main point.

Hi maria,

It may help to view this passage as something of a book review with the author using Brown's book to illustrate the passage author's central point about "other factors" explaining "the characteristic features of Venetian narrative paintings with religious subjects produced during that period." Answer choice (B) reflects this central idea to the passage and does not limit itself solely to Brown's arguments and observation. In fact, the passage author appears to go well outside the information provided by Brown's book. So (C) is a far broader summary of the passage than just brown's book and still passes the fact test for the main point.

But also consider that Answer choice (C) is overly narrow. That is to say, it only addresses the idea that Tuscany and Venice were distiguishable. Though that's part of the argument, the author goes on to explain a much broader theseis, namely that Venice was different because of architecture, artist figure-drawing skills etc. and Answer Choice (C) does not address that at all, thus making (B) the better choice here.

Thanks for the great question and I hope this helped!

Why is (B) not considered too broad of an answer?

[Adam Tyson]

The short answer, am2gritt, is that it's not considered too broad because, well, it isn't! The answer to a Main Point question should broadly cover the passage, hitting all the key elements. If the author is making a clear argument, then the Main Point is essentially a restatement of the conclusion to that argument, perhaps with some of the supporting premises thrown in. If the passage is not an argument, the Main Point will be more of a summary of the passage content and structure, all wrapped up in one tidy sentence.

I like Nick's description of this passage as being something of a book report. This passage is arguing that while Brown's book makes a good argument for what caused differences in Tuscan and Venetian 15th-Century narrative painting, it is incomplete because it fails to account for more practical differences like climate and the different skills needed for frescoes as compared to drawing architecture in perspective. The main point might be prephrased as "there were important differences, and those differences were due to more than just what Brown said." Answer B is a pretty good match for that!

Consider your prephrase here, and compare that to the answer choices. Is there another that you liked better, that you felt more accurately and completely captured the theme and content of the passage as a whole? Be careful about gravitating towards answers just because they are true statements, like answer C here. Being true is necessary for the correct answer, but it is not sufficient! We need something that is true AND complete!

[emilyjmyer]

Hi,

Why's is C wrong? I thought a main idea for this passage would have had to have mentioned both the Tuscan and Venetian paintings.

Thanks!

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi Emily,

I'm going to assume that you are talking about the Lesson 4, humanities passage 3, question number 9, because I don't see any humanities passages in lesson 3. If that is an incorrect assumption, please let me know! But for now, I'll assume that's the one you are looking at.

This is one of my weaker topics on reading comp. Where most students dread the science passages, I need more help in the humanities. Luckily, it doesn't matter what the topic is. Whenever I find a topic that I sigh when I see, I turn back to my goals in RC, focusing on the VIEWSTAMP, and the structure in particular.

With this passage, we start off by introducing the topic--the narrative paintings of Venice as analyzed in a new book by Brown. The passage contrasts the Venetian paintings with the Tuscan paintings. It moves into discussing how the Venetian painting style, focusing on side details and glimpses of daily life, was typical of Venetian historical records as well.

The passage then turns to another viewpoint---the author's. If the first paragraph was all about Brown's theory of Venetian art as reflective of general Venetian preferences, the second is about a different theory. This theory says that Venetian art is different from Tuscan art because of climate. The climate in Venice is not suited for frescoes, the large paintings of figures best viewed at a distance. The Venetian paintings took after the secular narrative paintings in the Magistrate's building, paintings that told a story with lots of side narrative detail.

Finally, the passage ends discussing how training focus differed in Venice from Tuscany. The passage uses that to explain the differences in focus of art in Venice. Venetian art focuses on architecture, instead of human figure drawing.

Overall, the passage doesn't focus on Tuscan art as an art itself, but only as a foil to Venetian art. The goal is to explain why Venetian art is the way it is. The passage gives three different reasons for the features of Venetian art. It expands on the original theory in the first paragraph as proposed by Brown, and gives two alternatives. That's well summed up by answer choice (B). We didn't need to discuss Tuscany in our correct answer because the passage was only using Tuscany as a foil for Venice. We did need to discuss more than the narrative history explanation of the art so that we also covered climate and training.

Hope that helps!