Reading Comprehension

PT142 · S3 · P1 · Q2 The Decline of Perfumery

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Given the amount of time and effort that curators, collectors, dealers, scholars, and critics spend on formulating judgments of taste in relation to oil paintings, it seems odd that so few are prepared to apply some of the same skills in exploring works of art that stimulate another sense altogether: that of smell.

Topic

Why great perfume isn’t considered a serious art form—despite strong similarities to painting and music.

Framework

Challenge Position (The author challenges the position that perfume is not taken seriously as art.)

Main Point

Even though perfume, like painting and music, is a sophisticated art that stimulates our senses and emotions, it isn’t taken as seriously as visual or musical arts, partly due to commercialization and neglect by art professionals. *Most Valuable Sentence*: "Why is great perfume not taken more seriously?" (end of P1 and developed throughout passage) and (P3).

P1: Surprise at Perfume’s Neglect by Art Professionals

Despite how much time experts spend evaluating visual arts, almost nobody in the art world approaches perfume with the same seriousness, even though some perfumes are true masterpieces.

P2: Comparing Painting and Perfumery Techniques

The passage draws parallels between painting and perfume-making, describing how both involve crafting complex creations from natural and synthetic materials, with both changing over time.

P3: Perfume as a Sophisticated, Emotional Art

Just as painters create moods and stories with color, skilled perfumers (“noses”) use scents to evoke deep emotional memories and experiences—making perfume as intimate and powerful as painting or music.

2.

In which one of the following circumstances would the author of the passage be most likely to believe that a perfume manufacturer is justified in altering the formula of a classic perfume?

  1. The alteration makes the perfume

    Too Specific

    The author supplied Joy Parfum as one example of a great perfume that can be appreciated like a work of art. But the author doesn't want all perfumes to smell like Joy Parfum. I could mention the Mona Lisa as a great painting, but that doesn't mean that I think paintings should be changed to look more like the Mona Lisa.

    2% picked this

  2. The alteration is done to

    Opposite

    This sounds like the status quo, like the current reason that classic perfumes have their formulas altered. The author was against this practice of altering a formula to save money by using cheaper ingredients.

    3% picked this

  3. The alteration replaces a synthetic

    Unsupported Distinction

    This answer is tempting, because it's the closest thing to offering a "flipped" version of substituting a cheap chemical compound for a rarer, better ingredient. But we don't know that the rarer, better ingredient was a natural chemical compound. It seems plausible, but the passage didn't distinguish between different types of chemical compounds. It just expressed anger that perfume companies alter the classic formulas by substituting cheap chemical compounds for rarer, better ingredients. If anything, the distinction we'd care about is cheap vs. rare/better, not synthetic vs. natural. We might have had to pick this answer if there weren't something better available, but this answer loses to (E) since what the author cares about most of all is staying faithful to the perfumer's artistic vision. The whole reason we'd speculate that the author would prefer a natural compound is that we're thinking, "Yes ... that will be more like the perfumer's original recipe". But just because you go from synthetic to natural doesn't mean you're doing so in a way that stays faithful to the original recipe. (E) locks in more tightly the idea that the author doesn't like alterations. He wants the classic formulas to be preserved and appreciated.

    13% picked this

  4. The alteration is done to

    Unsupported: popularity

    This author has never demonstrated that she cares about perfumes being popular with a wider variety of customers. She cares about perfumes more as an artistic creation worthy of appreciation. This answer would sound better if the alteration were done "to make a wider variety of people appreciate perfumes as art".

    1% picked this

  5. Correct

    The alteration takes a previously

    Why this is right

    This answer doesn't seem to tie in to any one sentence in the last paragraph, but it reflects a common sense understanding of the author's priorities. She thinks that perfumes can be masterful creations that should be appreciated for the works of art they are. She is mad when alterations are done just to save a buck, degrading the old formula that the perfumer slaved over. If a classic perfume had its original formula previously altered, that alteration would make the author unhappy. So this answer is flipping the complaint and saying the author would be happy if an alteration took us back to where we started (or at least closer to where we started) with the original formula. The more that a perfume retains the artistic vision of its creator, the happier the author will be.

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

    81% picked this

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