It Is Impossible To Describe The Arts In The United States GMAT Reading Comprehension

Reading Passage Question

It is impossible to describe the arts in the United States without reference to our extraordinary ethnic and cultural diversity, but recognition of the full spectrum of different traditions has been slow in coming. The story of the realization of America's extraordinary artistic diversity can be told in three chapters, culminating in the fairly recent proliferation of cultural centers of color, and demonstrates that art, like life, can flourish in many different settings.

The settlement houses of the late 1800s, supported by private philanthropy and founded to provide artistic training, produce performances, and mount exhibitions, were designed to address the needs of poor European immigrants. As the communities in which settlement houses were located changed, so did their constituencies; and most of these organizations now serve communities of color. The oldest and best known, Hull House in Chicago, serves one of the country's largest multiethnic communities with immigrants from Asia, Latin America, Africa, and other parts of the world.

In the 1930s, a variety of visual, performing, and literary arts projects were initiated under the aegis of the Works Progress Administration and aimed not only at providing employment for artists but at generally encouraging a wide range of cultural expression. The achievements of these programs were substantial. The Negro Unit of the Federal Theater Project employed some 500 blacks in New York and produced dramas focusing on Nat Turner, Harriet Tubman, and Pierre Toussaint. The Federal Music Project featured all-black opera casts and preserved, recorded, and published Negro folk music, and thousands of African-Americans attended art classes funded by the Project in the South Side Community Art Center in Chicago and at the Harlem Art Center.

The 1960s saw a grassroots movement among artists of color, when an unprecedented number of college-trained artists of color who possessed an understanding of the art forms of the larger society as well as those of their own communities, and who were tired of being rejected or stereotyped by established arts institutions, began to create informal groups and networks. They experimented with new artistic forms, often interdisciplinary, ethnocentric productions, in the process developing new audiences for the arts. The country was also in the throes of a cultural upheaval in which established models were challenged by young people from all racial, ethnic, and economic groups. Many of the cultural institutions established during this period, such as the Free Southern Theater of the Student nonviolent Coordinating Committee and El Teatro Campesino of the United Farmworkers, were integral parts of the civil rights struggle. The mood of activism, experimentation, and optimism was not limited to artists of color, but it was in this cultural ferment that the concept of nonprofit, community-based, ethnically specific organizations of color took root.

Many of the "culturally elite" regarded these efforts with skepticism because these "radical artists" attacked the prevailing view that tended to rate cultures and their aesthetics strictly by European standards. But the result was not the devaluation of one experience at the expense of another. Rather, ethnically specific arts organizations, by preserving and sharing their own cultural heritages, promoted the unique cultural and artistic pluralism of the United States.

“It is impossible to describe the arts in the United States”- is a reading comprehension exercise for the GMAT. Candidates must be extremely skilled in GMAT reading comprehension. This GMAT reading comprehension section contains six comprehension questions. The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed to assess candidates' ability to comprehend, analyzation, and application skills. GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions can help candidates who are actively preparing.

Solutions and Explanation

1. The author is primarily concerned with

(A) celebrating cultural diversity in the United States
(B) presenting a definition of art and aesthetics
(C) explaining the concept of the settlement house
(D) describing the realization of America's artistic diversity
(E) encouraging the growth of cultural centers

2. The author's purpose in mentioning Hull House (Highlighted) is to

(A) give an illustration of an ethnically specific arts organization of color
(B) explain in further detail the process of establishing a settlement house
(C) show how patterns of immigration help determine the ethnic make-up of communities
(D) provide an example of a settlement house that now serves a community of color
(E) describe a model for cultural centers that serve ethnically diverse communities

3. According to the passage, all of the following are true of the artists of color who worked during the 1960s EXCEPT:

(A) They developed new forms of artistic expression.
(B) They contributed to the civil rights movement.
(C) They worked with people fromother disciplines.
(D) They often focused on their own ethnic traditions.
(E) They benefited greatly from government grants.

4. The passage suggests that the primary function of the Works Progress Administration was to

(A) fund arts organizations
(B) encourage artistic expression
(C) establish cultural centers
(D) create jobs for the unemployed
(E) maximize cultural diversity

5. With which of the following statements would the author most likely agree?

(A) Familiarity with one aesthetic tradition can blind people to the beauty of an alternative tradition.
(B) Government support for the arts is necessary if culture is to flourish.
(C) Counter-cultural revolutions are most successful when lead by artists rather than intellectuals.
(D) The European tradition of aesthetics is less valid than the traditions of people of color.
(E) The cultural contribution of an artist depends upon the level of formal education attained by the artist.

6. The author regards the achievements of the artists of color of the 1960s as

(A) well-intentioned but amateurish
(B) innovative but unimportant
(C) radical and invaluable
(D) political and misguided
(E) predictable and derivative

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