Reading Comprehension · Humanities
PrepTest 113 · Section 1 · Passage 3
Questions 14–21
Before you start
Open PrepTest 113, Section 1 in your official copy from LSAC and read the passage for Questions 14–21, using the structure guide below. The passage is not reprinted here.
Structure guide
- P1: introduces one creator's work, names the two kinds of themes it blends, and lays out two related criticisms of that blend
- P2: gives the creator's own reply to the critics (the creator's voice, not the author's)
- P3: the author offers a better lens for reading the work, drawn from another art form the creator loves, and draws a parallel
- P4: extends the model to the link between artist and community and concludes, in the author's voice, that the individual is never fully cut off
Step 2 · The kid passage
Nadia's Attic Hero
Nadia draws a strip for the school paper. Its hero, a quiet, unnoticed girl, lets Nadia mix two kinds of ideas: stories rooted in the past and struggles of her own Elm Street block, and ideas from overseas comic artists she loves, about how a person's self keeps shifting. This drew two linked complaints. Frankie said her focus on one kid's inner life kept the strip from pushing the campaign to rebuild the Elm Street playground. Sharon said borrowing the overseas style weakened her part in building a true Elm Street comic style.
Nadia heard one demand there: artists should muzzle themselves for bigger causes. She replied that it insults a block and its artists to say hard times call for "fenced-yard art," where each group's artists must stay inside their own group's themes. That view treats artists as unable to see in fresh ways, and assumes readers can only see from where they stand.
A better lens comes from Nadia's love of double dutch. Double dutch has always borrowed moves from other games; Elm Street jumpers turn cartwheels into tricks that feel personal yet still Elm Street. Nadia does the same with overseas ideas, neither copying nor walling herself off.
Further, a jumper's wildest trick still follows the beat of the two rope turners. That pictures how an artist relates to her block. Nadia's loving spoofs of older artists are thank-yous that soften her hero's loneliness. Though the hero sits alone in an attic, she is never fully cut off.
Step 4 · The courtroom tale
The Case of the Foreign Frosting
The Hometown Bakers' Club tried to kick out a young baker. "Her cakes use frosting tricks from bakers across the ocean," their lawyer said. "In times like these, she should bake only for our club's cause." Mr. Whitfield snapped his suspenders. "Your Honor, the baker herself says that is a muzzle, not a rule. And here is a better way to see her cakes." He pointed to the town's marching band. "The band borrows tunes from everywhere and makes them sound like our town. The drummer may play a wild solo, but he never leaves the beat. My client's cakes are like that: new tricks, old roots." The judge tasted a slice. "Personal, and still hometown. Motion denied."