MCAT Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills Question 45: Answer and Explanation

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Test Information

Question: 45

7. Suppose a critic were to propose a comparative analysis between Shakespeare's 16th-century play Romeo and Juliet and Tennessee Williams's 20th-century play A Streetcar Named Desire, focusing entirely on how the number of acts in each play affects the development of the main female character. Which of the following statements best represents how the author of the passage would most likely view this study and/or its author?

  • A. This critic is not a cultural studies practitioner because she limits her investigations to questions internal to the plays.
  • B. The critic is resisting historical disciplines by cutting across several centuries in her analysis.
  • C. The critic should include an analysis of Shakespeare's and Williams's lives and the impact of personal events on their writing.
  • D. Questions of who supported Shakespeare and Williams financially are irrelevant.

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

A This is a New Information question.

A: Yes. Because the question the critic asks is limited to the form of the plays and the development of characters within that structure, and because it does not address culture or any of the goals of cultural studies as they are outlined in the passage, the author is most likely to argue that the critic is not practicing cultural studies.

B: No. If anything, comparing texts from two different periods in history would be embracing a historical approach, not resisting it.

C: No. Examining the text in terms of the events of the author's life is not one of the goals of cultural studies.

D: No. We have no evidence the author disagrees with the fourth goal of cultural studies, as described it in paragraph 5, which asserts the relevance of questions of finance and production.

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