Reading Comprehension

PT111 · S2 · P2 · Q9 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.

9.

As it is used in the passage, the phrase "protest painting" (middle of the third paragraph) appears to refer to painting that

  1. Correct

    depicted general scenes of social

    Why this is right

    This is the only answer that's playing off the logical opposite of "individual human suffering". Since moving beyond the protest painting meant that now Bearden could reveal instances of individual human suffering, we're inferring that the protest painting only revealed instances of general suffering on a group scale. How do we know it depicted suffering / hardship at all? That's just context + common sense kicking in. The previous sentence was talking about "scenes of hardships of the period", and then we hear about "the usual protest painting of the period".

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

    79% picked this

  2. portrayed solitary figures in abstract

    Opposite: solitary figures

    We're looking for something that sounds like the logical opposite of "individual human suffering". So "portraying solitary figures" sounds more like Bearden than like "protest painting".

    1% picked this

  3. challenged the traditional techniques employed

    Out of Scope: challenged techniques

    We're looking for something that sounds like the logical opposite of "individual human suffering", because that's the only supporting text we have in relation to "protest painting". So we have no leg to stand on when it comes to saying that these protest paintings "challenged traditional techniques".

    6% picked this

  4. emphasized the experiences of African

    Out of Scope: emphasized black experience

    We're looking for something that sounds like the logical opposite of "individual human suffering", because that's the only supporting text we have in relation to "protest painting". We are definitely assuming from the context + common sense that "protest paintings" emphasized the experiences of Americans during the Great Depression, but we have no reason to think that the term "protest painting" was specifically about African Americans. This answer describes something we know is true of Bearden, not something we know is true of protest paintings.

    7% picked this

  5. used innovative techniques to suggest

    Out of Scope: innovative techniques

    We're looking for something that sounds like the logical opposite of "individual human suffering", because that's the only supporting text we have in relation to "protest painting". This answer describes something we know is true of Bearden, not something we know is true of protest paintings. We have no idea if they used innovative techniques.

    6% picked this

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