MCAT Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills Practice Test 17

We all start out as animists, as toddlers vaguely uncertain about whether our beloved doll or pull-toy puppy might be a living being. When I was a child, my favorite cartoons were those that played in to that confusion, films in which toasters or teapots or slippers sprouted legs and faces and revealed their true natures as menacing agents of mayhem and chaos.

In time, we learn to distinguish the creature from the object, and, later, consumer society conditions us to detach ourselves from our stuff so effectively that we can dedicate ourselves to the perpetual quest for nicer stuff and embrace the necessity of regularly exchanging older models for newer ones. But some vestige of the child remains, evidenced by the tenacious hold material things have over us, as objects of desire and, more mysteriously, as personal mementos and totems-as clues to our secret selves and as signposts along the circuitous route that has taken us from the past into the present. Objects survive because we need them, or because we are convinced that we need them. The unreconstructed animist will see a Darwinian triumph in the rapidity with which a crumpled boarding pass evolves into an all-important and indispensable detail in the narrative of some meaningful chapter in our lives.

One such chapter is the subject of Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Lenore Doolan and Harold Morris, Including Books, Street Fashion, and Jewelry. A series of captioned photographs, Leanne Shapton's ingenious book does a deadpan imitation of the auction catalogues that often accompany the sale of an estate or private collection, catalogues that constitute a peculiar genre in themselves. Typically, the detritus of dead movie stars and the obsessions of rich eccentrics crowd the pages of these paperbound volumes designed to persuade potential bidders that the auction is a purely professional, emotionally neutral transaction, and not, as one might suspect, a thinly disguised memento mori, an indication that something has ended-a life, someone's fiscal solvency, or, in the best case, an acquisitive passion.

Shapton presents and describes the artifacts that once belonged to a couple, now broken up. Someone (one or both of the lovers) is jettisoning everything (or almost everything; some lots have been removed from the sale, for unspecified reasons) that the pair possessed or acquired over a relationship that lasted four years, more or less. There are cake stands, blankets, sports equipment, snapshots, T-shirts, clippings, hand-lettered menus from celebratory dinners for two, unopened bottles of wine - and many of these humble items will turn out to signal a plot turn in the history of a romance.

A slightly charred backgammon set, a souvenir of a summer the lovers spend in the country, precedes a handwritten message from Hal: "I want this to work, but there are sides to you I just can't handle sometimes. Chucking the backgammon board into the fire was the last straw." The phone number of a couples' therapist appears on the back of a business card, and we realize that the crisis has escalated when we see a photo of Morris's white-noise machine, which appears to be smashed by a hammer.

Just as the concept of Important Artifacts is amusing in itself, so is its central conceit: Although the bidding estimates assigned to the lots fall well within the range that a provident auction house might term "sensibly" or "reasonably" priced, the fact is that a large percentage of what is being auctioned off is basically crap that no sensible person would want, not even for free. The seriousness beneath the joke is that these scraps of paper, used clothes, and borderline garbage were formerly objects of incalculable worth; indeed, they once meant everything to this fictional couple.

Reading the final pages of Important Artifacts, I found myself reflecting that the cartoonists whose work I so loved as a child might have been right about the potentially subversive or maniacal ways that objects would behave, if only they could. It may not be true that the furious teapot is plotting to grab a soup spoon and chase us around the house, but it seems inarguable that the deceptively innocent tea cozy could say far more than we would ever want strangers-or anyone, really-to know about who we are, what we did, what was done to us, and how we felt when it happened.

Material used in this particular passage has been adapted from the following source:

F. Prose, "Love for Sale: Appraising the Relics of a Relationship," Harper's Magazine, © 2009.

1. A study shows that painters who hire agents and business managers early in their careers tend to be more prolific. What effect would this information have on the author's argument regarding an artist's involvement in his own career?

• A. It would be contrary to the author's claim that artists need to manage their own careers.
• B. It would be relevant to evaluating the notion that the essence of Stravinsky's artistic vision was shaped by collaboration.
• C. It would support the author's implication that artistic fields of endeavor are also businesses.
• D. It would justify Stravinsky's engagement in strenuous disputes regarding theatrical elements.

2. All of the following items are listed in the passage as relics of Doolan and Morris's relationship EXCEPT:

• A. a white-noise machine.
• B. bottles of wine.
• C. a crumpled boarding pass.
• D. T-shirts.

3. The author's attitude toward Shapton's book is:

• A. predominantly critical but balanced.
• B. effusive with praise and superficial.
• C. approving and contemplative.
• D. disparaging and plaintive.

4. Which of the following statements best summarizes the author's central purpose?

• A. To express her appreciation of Important Artifacts and to explain how it gave her an elevated awareness of the meaning of objects
• B. To praise Shapton's defense of animism inherent in the pages of Important Artifacts
• C. To laugh at the irony that the objects that once meant so much to Doolan and Morris as a couple become, after their breakup, objects of little to no worth
• D. To heighten the reader's awareness of everyday objects and those objects' potential to speak for us and tell stories of the events of our lives

5. Why does the author present the example of the backgammon set in paragraph 5?

• A. To provide proof of Lenore Doolan's bad temper as the reason for the decline of the couple's relationship
• B. As a piece of evidence for her claim that objects photographed for the book signal plot turns in the couple's relationship
• C. To support her point that worthless objects acquire sentimental value when people are in relationships and are therefore invaluable
• D. To suggest that objects only acquire meaning after they are altered in some form

6. The author most likely believes that:

• A. her toaster is plotting grand schemes to reveal her darkest secrets.
• B. it was not right of Shapton to expose a couple's private life the way she does in her book.
• C. Doolan and Morris' relationship was doomed to failure.
• D. we turn certain objects into significant and necessary documents of memorable parts of our lives.

7. According to the author, auction catalogues are generally designed to create what sort of impression for potential bidders?

• A. A belief that the lives of movie stars and rich eccentrics are more fascinating than our own
• B. An acknowledgement that something has ended-a life, someone's fiscal solvency, or an acquisitive passion
• C. A wistful imagining of the stories and secrets those objects can potentially reveal
• D. An appearance of impartiality and professionalism