Between the answers with “uncertainty” and “doubt,” we would want to see that “despair” doesn’t describe anything in the text. The text does say that Africa “left its mark” on the people being described, and that the world is forced to take note of Africans and African-Americans, which is a demonstration of the author’s “pride.” So (E) is correct.
Page 393, Question 15
Test-takers miss this one frequently because they think “personal anecdotes” is the answer, but the author never relays a personal story, so (D) is wrong. (B), on the other hand, is right, because the author repeatedly refers generally to all Africans and all African-Americans as though they were all the same.
(C) is another wrong answer that often attracts a lot of test-takers. The text does mention some things in the past tense, but it doesn’t give specific historical facts like “in 1492 Columbus captained three ships bound West from Spain.” Instead, we have only broad, figurative statements like “for centuries, we have gazed at one another across the transatlantic divide.”
Page 394, Question 16
(C) is correct because the popular appeal is mentioned in the first paragraph of Passage 1, which calls the Mona Lisa the “world’s most famous portrait,” and because Passage 2 says that the passage is “famous” in line 44 and in other places, and talks about its “renown” in line 67.
Some test-takers incorrectly choose (D) because the first passage talks about how the Mona Lisa was the first painting to include many features that were later adopted in other paintings (lines 10 through 15), and the second passage talks about how the painting captured the attention of Clarke and Barolsky. But Clarke and Barolsky are not described as artists in the second passage, and the answer (D) refers specifically to the painting’s influence on artists, not on critics and historians.
Page 394, Question 17
For questions like this one, students often get frustrated because they feel it’s impossible to find something stated directly in the text when we’re asked what the author of one passage would have said about the other. But remember that, even in these situations, the correct answer is stated directly somewhere.
The phenomena in Passage 1 are the giant crowds of people that turned out to see the painting, and in line 68 the author of Passage 2 says that “people, institutions, processes . . . have turned the Mona Lisa into the best-known painting in the world.” (A) restates this exactly, and no other choice does.
(B) is an answer choice that a lot of students will be attracted to, because it sounds like a decent interpretation that you could defend in a classroom discussion. But it’s wrong because the author of passage 2 doesn’t say anything about the true importance of the painting.
Page 395, Question 18
(A) doesn’t work because the passage never actually says that the painting is beautiful, or that the woman’s appearance was normal. Many test-takers will like this wrong answer because they personally believe the painting is beautiful or that the woman herself was normal in appearance, but we always have to remember that we’re looking for an answer choice that appears directly in the text, not for a choice that matches our own interpretation.
(B) doesn’t work because the passage doesn’t say anything about the portrait’s monetary value.
(C) doesn’t work because of “untimely demise.”
(D) doesn’t work because the text doesn’t mention a lack of charisma.
(E) is correct because “ordinary status” goes with “nobody special,” and “set the standard for painting” goes with “aesthetic significance.”
Page 395, Question 19
The text says that Leonardo is describing the effect of the technique in the sentence that begins on line 23, so (B) is correct. None of the other choices is spelled out in the text anywhere.
Page 395, Question 20
Again, even though the question is asking what one author would say about another author’s work, which seems like a fairly subjective question to ask, the correct answer must be stated directly in the text. Passage 2 mentions “features” that bring “instant recognition.” The only feature mentioned in Passage 1 is the “famous smile” in the last line, so the correct answer is (A). Note that “famous” in passage 1 goes with “brings instant recognition” in passage 2.
Page 395, Question 21
While each of the answer choices could be a synonym for the word “position” in a particular context, the correct answer will be the only one that restates something from the passage itself. Let’s trace the word “position” back through the text and see what happens.