#4 - Concept Reference, Must Be True, Purpose

[emilysnoddon]

For this question I was deciding between answer choice B and answer choice E. I eventually chose answer choice E because of the phrace "adjusted himself to new social conditions". Can you please help me understand why B is correct and E is incorrect?


Thank you!

[Adam Tyson]

You're right that the author tells us that Delacroix adjusted himself to new social conditions, but the question is why - why did he even mention Delacroix? What purpose did that information serve in the overall passage? It was to set up a contrast with the supposedly "prophetic" artists who were working just prior to WWI. According to our author, critics have claimed that the prophetic nature of those works is what makes them interesting, despite their artistic innovations. The Delacroix example is introduced to show that innovation is worth looking at for its own sake, regardless of whether great changes happened before the work was done (as in Delacroix's case) or after (as in Picasso and Braque and others).

Consider the text that introduces that example: "It is also important to remember that not all decisive changes in art are quickly followed by dramatic events in the world outside art. The case of Delacroix, the nineteenth century French painter, is revealing." That tells you that we are about to see an example of a decisive change that is NOT followed by dramatic outside events, and that's the purpose of including it.

I hope that makes sense! Keep up the good work.

[lanereuden]

Fortunately I picked B, but only after grappling with A. Is A wrong because of the term usually? That is, one case is not enough to generalize?

[James Finch]

Hi Lane,

Delacroix is used as a counterexample to the numerous others given by the passage of artists presaging social changes. Instead, he was adapting to social changes, rather than predicting them, something that other artists also did. The problem is that we don't know and aren't told the relative ratio between artists who predict and those that adapt to social changes. So as you note, the "usually" in answer choice (A) isn't supported by the text, as it would mean that the majority of artistic changes predict social change rather than the other way around.

More importantly, this isn't why Delacroix is brought up: he is used as an example of social change preceding an artistic one, showing that not all artistic change precedes a social one, exactly what (B) is saying. Be careful not to just focus on what is true or untrue about the passage, but also what the specific question is asking.

Hope this clears things up!

[lanereuden]

So is the general takeaway for this question, in my case, just: Be careful not to just focus on what is true or untrue about the passage, but also what the specific question is asking.

Or is there something more to be said here?
Regardless, thanks so much!

[Erik Shum]

Hi Lane,

Your takeaway is definitely good advice to test takers but I don't believe that should be your takeaway from James's post (if that's what you mean).

My general takeaway from this question is that RC passages should be read purposefully (as they will teach you to read statutes/codes in law school): You should ask yourself why a new fact, anecdote, etc. is included. In this case, why (for what purpose) did the author inject Delacroix's example into this passage? When you juxtapose Delacroix with the other artists described, you see that Delacroix serves as a unique example of an artist who innovated stylistically but was not credited with foreseeing social and political change.

Even before getting to question #4, after reading the final paragraph of the passage, a good RC reader will likely have identified the role of Delacroix.

Does that help?