Reading Comprehension

PT111 · S2 · P2 · Q11 Romare Bearden

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The paintings of Romare Bearden (1911–1988) represent a double triumph.

Topic

Romare Bearden’s artistic achievements and his portrayal of African-American life

Framework

Highlight Noteworthy

Main Point

Bearden’s paintings are notable for both their innovative technical mastery and their rich, layered explorations of African-American experiences—he used a unique style and sensitivity to portray both hardship and celebration in new, powerful ways. (Most Valuable Sentence: This is best summarized in the first paragraph: )

P1: Dual Achievement of Bearden

Bearden is introduced as both a technical innovator in painting and an artist deeply invested in exploring and expressing the diversity of African-American experiences.

P2: Style and Technical Innovation

The passage explains how Bearden developed a distinctive style combining painting and collage, allowing him to transform everyday subjects into art. He believed artists should have a deep awareness of the possibilities and limits of their chosen form.

P3: Portraying Hardship in the Great Depression

Here we see how Bearden captured the struggles of African-Americans during the Great Depression—going beyond mere protest art by showing personal suffering and using abstract backgrounds and muted colors to represent psychological and social realities.

11.

It can be inferred from the passage that journalistic and photographic records of Depression-era Harlem generally do not

  1. involve innovative creative techniques

    Out of Scope: innovative techniques

    This isn't resonating with any of the available supporting text: - doesn't reveal world in all its fullness (i.e. happier parts of life) - uses clichés and simplifications When something is using cliches and oversimplifying, it tends to be on the safe / mainstream side, but it's too much of a leap to assume it doesn't use innovative creative techniques.

    7% picked this

  2. reveal instances of individual human

    Opposite, if anything: suffering

    We had two nuggets of possible supporting text: - doesn't reveal world in all its fullness (i.e. happier parts of life) - uses clichés and simplifications Since we're hearing that these records generally do not focus on the happier parts of life, we are assuming that they generally record the sad bits of suffering. So this answer sounds more like what journalism / documentary photography is doing than what it's not doing. It should also give us the creeps that this is stealing "individual human suffering" from an earlier part of the passage about "protest paintings". It's trying to entice us by using actual language from the passage (but we should know it's a trap, since it's grabbing actual language from the passage that's not even in our Support Window).

    16% picked this

  3. communicate the sociological platitudes of

    Opposite: communicate platitudes

    We had two nuggets of supporting text. Journalism / Documentary photography ... - don't reveal world in all its fullness (i.e. happier parts of life) - do use clichés and simplifications "Platitudes" is a synonym for clichés, so this answer is talking about what these records do do. The question stem is asking for what these record do not do.

    6% picked this

  4. Correct

    depict the richness of African-American

    Why this is right

    We had two nuggets of possible supporting text: - doesn't reveal world in all its fullness (i.e. happier parts of life) - uses clichés and simplifications This best matches our Support Window. "doesn't reveal in all its fullness" is pretty synonymous with "generally do not depict the richness". Where did the African American part come from? It's not found in our local support window, but it informs our global understanding of the passage. One of Bearden's two main goals is to communicate the African American experience. The author is giving him credit for capturing things that "protest paintings" didn't (instances of individual human suffering ... of African Americans) and for capturing things that journalism and documentary photography didn't (the world in all its fullness ... for African Americans). The second to last sentence of the passage says, His work insists that we truly see the African-American experience in depth. If Bearden "sought in his work to reveal in all its fullness a world long hidden by journalism/photography" and if Bearden's work "insists that we truly see the African-American experience in depth", then we have some support for the idea that journalism/photography don't reveal the African-American experience in depth.

    Skill tested: Inference · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    64% picked this

  5. cloud the picture of everyday

    Opposite: cloud the picture

    We were told that "the simplifications of journalism and documentary photography render cloudy the world". So this answer is describing what journalism / photography did do. The question stem is asking for what they generally did not do.

    7% picked this

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