Question

Which of the following best expresses the main idea of the passage?

• A. Gilpin's landscape photographs more accurately documented the Southwest than did the photographs of explorers and conservationists.
• B. Gilpin's style of landscape photography substantially influenced the heroic style practiced by her male counterparts.
• C. The labeling of Gilpin's style of landscape photography as feminine ignores important ties between it and the heroic style.
• D. Gilpin's work exemplifies an arguably feminine style of landscape photography that contrasts with the style used by her male predecessors.
• E. Gilpin's style was strongly influenced by the work of women writers who described the landscape in terms of its relationship to people.
• A. Its fragility in the face of increased human intrusion
• B. Its role in shaping the lives of indigenous peoples
• C. Its potential for sustaining future settlements
• D. Its importance as an environment for RARE PLANTS AND ANIMALS
• J. Its unusual vulnerability to extreme natural forces
• A. Gilpin believed that pictures of natural details could not depict the interrelationship between the land and humans.
• B. Gilpin considered close-up photography to be too closely associated with her predecessors.
• C. Gilpin believed that all of her photographs should include people in them.
• D. Gilpin associated close-up techniques with photography used for commercial purposes.
• O. Gilpin feared that pictures of small details would suggest an indifference to the fragility of the land as a whole.
• A. Indigenous people and their ancient customs relating to the river
• B. The exploits of navigators and explorers
• C. Unpopulated, pristine parts of the river and its surroundings
• D. Existing commercial ventures that relied heavily on the river
• T. The dams and other monumental engineering structures built on the river
• A. They photographed the land as an entity that had little interaction with human culture.
• B. They advanced the philosophy that photographers should resist alliances with political or commercial groups.
• C. They were convinced that the pristine condition of the land needed to be preserved by government action.
• D. They photographed the land as a place ready for increased settlement.
• Y. They photographed only those locations where humans had settled.
• A. A vista of a canyon still untouched by human culture
• B. A portrait of a visitor to the West against a desert backdrop
• C. A view of historic Native American dwellings carved into the side of a natural cliff
• D. A picture of artifacts from the West being transported to the eastern United States for retail sale
• ^. An abstract pattern created by the shadows of clouds on the desert
• A. counter a widely held criticism of her argument
• B. bolster her argument that Gilpin's style can be characterized as a feminine style
• C. suggest that Gilpin took some of her ideas for photographs from landscape descriptions by women writers
• D. clarify the interrelationship between human culture and the land that Gilpin was attempting to capture
• c. offer an analogy between photographic close-ups and literary descriptions of small details

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
This question asks for the main idea of the passage, which is a critical analysis of Laura Gilpin's landscape photography. The main idea should encapsulate the central argument about Gilpin's work and how it relates to other photographers.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
The passage is structured around a central contrast. It begins by establishing Gilpin as a unique female landscape photographer. It then sets her work apart from both other women photographers (who didn't focus on landscape) and, more importantly, from the "male tradition" of Western landscape photography (lines 14-17). The passage details the "heroic" style of her male predecessors, which depicted an "unpopulated" and "exotic" land (lines 22-24). It then contrasts this with Gilpin's approach: a "peopled landscape with a rich history" where the environment "shaped and molded the lives of its inhabitants" (lines 35-37). The author argues this unique approach can be seen as "distinctively feminine" (lines 58-59), despite Gilpin's own reluctance to use such labels.
- (A) The passage doesn't claim Gilpin's work was more "accurate," but that her approach and focus were different.
- (B) The passage suggests Gilpin's style was a contrast to the heroic style, not an influence on it.
- (C) The author is the one arguing for the label "feminine," while acknowledging Gilpin's own views and the danger of generalization. The passage doesn't suggest this label ignores ties; it argues the styles are fundamentally different.
- (D) This statement perfectly captures the core argument. It identifies Gilpin's work as exemplifying a specific style ("arguably feminine"), and its primary characteristic is its contrast with the "heroic" style of her male predecessors.
- (E) The passage mentions an analogy to women writers (lines 48-52) to support the characterization of her style as feminine, but it does not claim she was "strongly influenced" by them. This is a supporting point, not the main idea.
Step 3: Final Answer:
The main idea is that Gilpin developed a unique, arguably feminine, style of landscape photography that stood in stark contrast to the dominant male tradition.

Answer 2

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
This is an inference question asking about the motivations of the "government and commercial survey teams" that pioneered Western photography. We need to look at the description of their work to infer their primary interest.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
The passage describes the work of these early photographers in lines 20-24. It states that they "documented the West that their employers wanted to see: an exotic and majestic land shaped by awesome natural forces, unpopulated and ready for American settlement." The key phrase here is "unpopulated and ready for American settlement." This clearly indicates that the primary interest of their employers (the government and commercial entities) was in the land's potential for future development and settlement.
- (A) This concern with fragility is associated with the next generation of photographers like Ansel Adams (lines 25-30), not the initial survey teams.
- (B) This is the focus of Gilpin's work, which is contrasted with the earlier photographers who saw the land as "unpopulated."
- (C) This aligns perfectly with the description of the land as "ready for American settlement." The teams were interested in its potential to be settled and developed.
- (D) The passage does not mention any interest in rare plants or animals.
- (E) While they documented "awesome natural forces," their employers' main interest was not in vulnerability but in the potential for settlement.
Step 3: Final Answer:
The description of the land as "ready for American settlement" strongly implies that the survey teams' employers were most interested in its potential for sustaining future settlements.

Answer 3

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
This is a detail question asking for the specific reason behind one of Gilpin's artistic choices. We need to find the part of the passage that discusses her use of close-ups.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
The passage addresses this directly in lines 41-46: "Also instructive is Gilpin's general avoidance of extreme close ups of her natural subjects: for her, emblematic details could never suggest the intricacies of the interrelationship between people and nature that made the landscape a compelling subject." This sentence explicitly states her reason for avoiding close-ups. She felt that focusing on small details was insufficient to capture the complex relationship between humans and the landscape, which was her primary interest.
- (A) This is a direct paraphrase of the reason given in lines 43-46.
- (B) The passage does not state that her predecessors used close-ups; in fact, their "heroic" style suggests grand vistas.
- (C) The passage says her focus was on a "peopled landscape," but not that she believed all photos must contain people. Her focus was on the relationship, which could be shown in other ways (e.g., irrigation ditches, town sites).
- (D) There is no mention of commercial photography in relation to her techniques.
- (E) The concern for fragility is associated with the male conservationist photographers, not Gilpin. Her focus was on human interaction, not just pristine nature.
Step 3: Final Answer:
The passage claims Gilpin avoided close-ups because she felt they were inadequate for showing the complex interrelationship between people and nature.

Answer 4

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
This question asks us to apply the passage's description of the "heroic" style to a hypothetical subject. We need to identify the characteristics of the heroic style and choose the option that best fits them.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
The passage describes the heroic style, practiced by Gilpin's male predecessors, in two places. The first generation saw "an exotic and majestic land shaped by awesome natural forces, unpopulated and ready for American settlement" (lines 22-24). The second generation (Ansel Adams, etc.) preserved this style, acting as a "respectful outsider peering in with reverence at a fragile natural world" (lines 29-30). The common thread is the focus on a pure, empty, and majestic nature, devoid of human influence or context.
In contrast, Gilpin's photos of the Rio Grande focused on its "significance to human culture" (line 39), such as irrigation, food, and towns. A heroic-style photographer would do the opposite.
- (A), (D), and (E) all focus on human interaction with the river (indigenous culture, commerce, engineering). These are subjects Gilpin would photograph, not a heroic-style photographer.
- (B) This is about human history, not the land itself.
- (C) This option perfectly captures the essence of the heroic style: focusing on the "unpopulated, pristine" aspects of the landscape, treating it as a majestic and empty vista.
Step 3: Final Answer:
A photographer of the heroic school would emphasize the unpopulated and pristine aspects of the Rio Grande, ignoring its role in human culture.

Answer 5

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
This question asks for a commonality between the two generations of male photographers described in the passage (the "explorer-photographers" and the "conservationist" generation of Adams and Porter).
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
The passage describes the first generation as documenting an "unpopulated" land (line 23). It describes the second generation as maintaining the role of a "respectful outsider peering in with reverence at a fragile natural world" (lines 29-30). The passage explicitly links them by saying the second generation "nonetheless preserved the 'heroic' style" (lines 28-29) of the first. The common element of this heroic style is the focus on nature as separate from humanity. The land is either empty and waiting for settlement, or it is a pristine, fragile world to be viewed from the outside. In both cases, the existing, intricate relationship between land and human culture (Gilpin's focus) is ignored.
- (A) This accurately describes the common element. Both generations depicted the land as essentially devoid of human culture, either by showing it as empty or by treating it as a pristine object separate from humanity.
- (B) This is false. The first generation worked for government and commercial groups. The second often worked with conservationist groups, which are political.
- (C) This applies to the second (conservationist) generation, but not the first (explorer) generation, who saw the land as ready for settlement.
- (D) This applies to the first generation, but not the second, who were more concerned with preservation.
- (E) This is the opposite of what both generations did.
Step 3: Final Answer:
The common thread between the two generations was their portrayal of the landscape as separate from, and largely devoid of, human culture.

Answer 6

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
This is an application question. We need to apply the passage's detailed description of Gilpin's style and subject matter to identify a likely photograph subject for her.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
The passage defines Gilpin's core interest as the "interrelationship between people and nature" (line 44-45). Her landscape was a "peopled landscape with a rich history and tradition of its own, an environment that shaped and molded the lives of its inhabitants" (lines 35-37). She depicted the Rio Grande in terms of its "significance to human culture" (line 39).
- (A) A vista "untouched by human culture" is the exact definition of the "heroic" style that Gilpin's work is contrasted with. This is the least likely subject.
- (B) While this includes a person, her work is described as documenting the inhabitants and their deep-rooted culture, not casual visitors.
- (C) Historic Native American dwellings carved into a cliff are a perfect example of the "interrelationship between people and nature." It shows how a culture lived within and was shaped by its physical environment, and it speaks to a "rich history and tradition." This fits her style perfectly.
- (D) This focuses on commerce and artifacts removed from their context, which doesn't align with her focus on the landscape shaping the lives of its inhabitants.
- (E) An abstract pattern is a purely formal subject, divorced from the human context that was central to Gilpin's work. She avoided "emblematic details" in favor of the larger interrelationship.
Step 3: Final Answer:
A view of historic Native American dwellings is the subject that best exemplifies Gilpin's focus on the deep, historical relationship between a culture and its landscape.

Answer 7

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
This question asks for the rhetorical purpose of a specific reference in the text. We need to understand why the author introduced the comparison to women writers at that particular point in the argument.
Step 2: Detailed Explanation:
The author introduces the reference right after admitting that "it is dangerous to draw conclusions about a 'feminine' way of seeing from the work of one woman" (lines 46-48). The author recognizes that this is a potential weakness in the argument. To counter this, the author immediately adds, "it can nonetheless be argued that Gilpin's unique approach... was analogous to the work of many women writers who, far more than their male counterparts, described the landscape in terms of its potential to sustain human life" (lines 48-52). This comparison shows that Gilpin's approach, while unique in photography, was part of a broader pattern found in the work of other women creators. This strengthens the claim that her style isn't just idiosyncratic but can be seen as part of a "feminine" perspective.
- (A) The reference doesn't counter a criticism; it preemptively supports a potentially weak point in the author's own argument.
- (B) This is the correct answer. The analogy to women writers is used to "bolster" (support or strengthen) the author's claim that Gilpin's style has feminine characteristics.
- (C) The passage presents the relationship as an analogy ("analogous to"), not as a direct influence.
- (D) The reference doesn't clarify the interrelationship itself, but rather provides a parallel to support a specific characterization ("feminine") of Gilpin's style.
- (E) The reference is not about close-ups; it's about the overall approach to describing the landscape in relation to human life.
Step 3: Final Answer:
The author mentions women writers to provide a parallel that strengthens the argument for characterizing Gilpin's style as feminine.