“Masterpieces are dumb,” wrote Flaubert, “They have a tranquil aspect

My question is whether these types of passages come in the exam , because this is way too tough for me and goes beyond my head.
Though i got 5 correct but i took lots of time.
I have encountered tough passages in the official guide and elsewhere but this is at a next level .

5. According to the passage, Tolstoi’s response to the accepted intellectual and artistic values of his times was to



I understand the part that says Tolstoi stays faithful to his experience but what I don't understand is where is it mentioned that being faithful 'upsets' them?

6. It can be inferred from the passage that which of the following is true of War and Peace?



I marked answer as 'c' because of the above line.


Where is it mentioned that it belongs to an early period?

Can anybody please clarify my doubts.

Pheew!! What a passage.

I am so dead if it turns out in the exam.

Got 4 correct, 3 wrong. in 13 mins.

Can anybody explain
3, ( why not E?)

5 ( why not B)
7 (why not B)?

Regards,
Rishav

jennpt

Can you please explain y ans is not a in this. How can we know it is the outcome of earlier belief. In the end author keeps describing how he was so unorthodox. Where does she tells you about his earlier belief n how it was the outcome of the belief.

The author states that Tolstoi’s conversion represented
(A) a radical renunciation of the world
(B) the rejection of avant-garde ideas
(C) the natural outcome of his earlier beliefs
(D) the acceptance of religion he had earlier rejected
(E) a fundamental change in his writing style

gmat8998

I think you're not looking at the right evidence in the passage for this question. This is not about the author's overall views on Tolstoi; this is about how she describes the conversion he experienced. Where does the author talk about his conversion, specifically?

It's in the second paragraph. Specifically, in the second sentence:


This is the evidence we need for this question. If this conversion was a culmination of his early spiritual life, not a departure from it, this means it was a natural progression from his previous spiritual beliefs, not some dramatically different thing. C is our best answer to match up with this.

Does this help? Let me know.

For the last question here, I saw on one of the sites that OA is E.
Reference: https://www.urch.com/forums/gre-reading ... quire.html

I also feel a bit that OA should be E, because of this excerpt from the passage:
In his work the artificial and the genuine are always exhibited in dramatic opposition: the supposedly great Napoleon and the truly great, unregarded little Captain Tushin, or Nicholas Rostov’s actual experience in battle and his later account of it. The simple is always pitted against the elaborate, knowledge gained from observation against assertions of borrowed faiths. Tolstoi’s magical simplicity is a product of these tensions

Option E says - continuing attempt to represent the natural in opposition to the pretentious
Here pretentious is something that is artificial and natural is something that is generous. Does not it fit to the Tensions that author describes?

However option A talks about his observation and exact description. But Author clearly mentions that the Truths were his own not of others
So EXACT DESCRIPTION becomes ambiguous right?
That is why I also have a slight believe that OA should be E.

Please help me understand if I am wrong with my reasoning?

Regards,
Rishav

I think for Q-->5 , the answer should be infered from below lines of the passage







After reading the lines highlighted in blue, option E is the best fit.

Am I correct??

I think there is a problem. The "War and Peace" is a work of Tolstoi. I think, in the passage , all his works should have been highlighted by either using Italics font or using quotes around.

Coming to this question, after reading the lines highlighted in blue, it seems "War and Peace" was one of his earlier works and his earlier style of writing.

Based on this, I think A is the best fit option.

This is the reasoning I came up with for question 3, and 7.
Someone please explain Q2 for me.


3.The author quotes from Bayley (line 8-20) to show that
(A) although Tolstoi observes and interprets life, he maintains no self-conscious distance from his experience
(B) the realism of Tolstoi’s work gives the illusion that his novels are reports of actual events
(C) unfortunately, Tolstoi is unaware of his own limitation, though he is sincere in his attempt to describe experience
(D) although Tolstoi works casually and makes unwarranted assumption, his work has an inexplicable appearance of truth
(E) Tolstoi’s personal perspective makes his work almost unintelligible to the majority of his readers

Option E is a criticism of Tolstoy's work and Bayley isn't doing that, so E is out.
Option D almost had me till I saw the word unwarranted, Tolstoy makes assumptions but it isn't said that it was unwarranted. So, ignore D.
Option C) also is a criticism of Tolstoy and that is not what Bayley is doing. So, remove C)
Now, it is between A and B.
Bayley talks about "his own truth" means Tolstoy is not able to separate himself from his narration. So its A.

Now, lets talk about Q7

7. According to the passage, the explanation of Tolstoi’s “magical simplicity” (line 55) lies partly in his
(A) remarkable power of observation and his facility in exact description
(B) persistent disregard for conventional restraints together with his great energy
(C) unusual ability to reduce the description of complex situations to a few words
(D) abiding hatred of religious doctrine and preference for new scientism
(E) continuing attempt to represent the natural in opposition to the pretentious

As its a specific detail question, lets look at the given line with particular focus on it.

"The simple is always pitted against the elaborate, knowledge gained from observation against assertions of borrowed faiths. Tolstoi’s magical simplicity is a product of these tensions; his work is a record of the questions he put to himself and of the answers he found in his search."

The magical simplicity is a product of "these" tensions. What does "these" refer to?Grammatically, there are 2 options: 1)simple against the elaborate.2) knowledge gained from observation against assertions of borrowed faiths. Now, which one is closer? the second one! So, it is A) and not E) @gennpt can you please verify this explanation . Also I will really appreciate if you can help us with Q2's explanation.

Mihiran

Time to complete: 10 mins (including reading time)
Answers correct on this passage: 7/7

With any literary/literature-passage, I would advise against taking anything too literally or on face value. Here is my reasoning for the following question, hope it helps.

The first part of the quote ("masterpieces are dumb") is deceptive if taken literally. My focus here is on the second part of the quote, which states: "...they have a tranquil aspect like the very products of nature, like large animals and mountains". This part is essentially saying that masterpieces can be equated to products of nature. What does this imply? Products naturally occurring, just occur. Similarly, masterpieces also, like products of nature, just occur (without anyone's permission or any other condition that one may attach). Masterpieces are being compared to mountains, etc. The answer should logically follow through with the comparison and thus, the answer will reflect the aforesaid interpretation.

(A) Masterpiece seem ordinary and unremarkable from the perspective of a later age - Wrong. There is nothing directly or indirectly implied about masterpieces (or what they are being compared to, products of nature) being ordinary/unremarkable. The only descriptors used are "dumb" and "tranquil".

(B) Great works of art do not explain themselves to us any more than natural objects do. - Correct. Do mountains explain themselves to us? Do lions? No. They're just there as a product of their existence/being. Similarly, great works also exist naturally, without the need to explain their existence to anyone (in this case "us").

(C) Important works of art take their place in the pageant of history because of their uniqueness. - Wrong. Flaubert mentions nothing about uniqueness or masterpieces being important works of art (though we can imply this after a few more lines of reading).

(D) The most important aspects of good art are the orderliness and tranquility it reflects. - Wrong. Again, Flaubert's quote has nothing to do with what the most important aspects of good art/masterpieces are. Nowhere is that said or implied.

(E) Masterpieces which are of enduring value represent the forces of nature. - Wrong. Flaubert's quote does not correlate "masterpieces of enduring value" with representing "the forces of nature". Instead, masterpieces ARE like products of nature. He says nothing about value maintained by these works, simply how and what they are using an analogy.

Hopefully, that helps you contextualize the question better.

please explain question 7 th

Can expert GMATNinja please help with question 3 and 7. Is the OA for Q 7 A and not E because question stem has the word "partly" in it?

passage states that " The simple is always pitted against the elaborate, knowledge gained from observation against assertions of borrowed faiths. Tolstoi’s magical simplicity is a product of these tensions;"

observations and its description are provided.

option E talks about Natural in opposition to pretentious but T's work the artificial and the genuine are always exhibited in dramatic opposition.

21. c

While reading the passage itself u will feel that the author's attitude is positive and not negative. And the attitude is positive towards all the works of the the author. This will help u eliminate a,b,d.

Now we are left with c and e.

I think that the word orthodoxy is derived from orthodox and we know for sure that the author's works are hardly orthodox so e cant be the correct option and that leaves us with c ... and c does "appear" to be correct.

So basically for this question you wd not have had required to go back and refer to the passage.

22 b.

For this question i went back to the first few lines and then i began eliminating the ans options. Frankly i dint understand the "tranquil aspects" that the author was talking abt. I was not even sure of the meaning. But i proceeded.

a,c and e are def wrong. The author is def not tryin to make those comparisons. He doesnt talk abt age or history or enduring ... nothing of that sort.

Coming to option d. The d option is verbose, usually those are not the ans. So i went with option b, if u read that option u will feel that, thats what the author is tryin to convey. So i answered b.

23.a

Based on these lines :

Like other nineteenth-century Russian writers he is “impressive” because he “means what he says,” but he stands apart from all others and from most Western writers in his identity with life, which is so complete as to make us forget he is an artist. He is the center of his work, but his egocentricity is of a special kind. Goethe, for example, says Bayley, “cared for nothing but himself. Tolstoi was nothing but himself.”

These lines lead u to believe that he was not away from his experiences. The options c,d,e talk of some truth which doesnt make sense as per what Bailey wanted to say. So they can be straight away eliminated. Again in option b there was this realism which i cdnt fit into what was being tried to said and so i eliminated that also.

24.c

This was perhaps the most direct till now, because one cd actually find the line which gave the ans.

The famous “conversion” of his middle years, movingly recounted in his Confession, was a culmination of his early spiritual life, not a departure from it.

It was a culmination and not departure. Even without elimination u cd have found the correct option.

25.e

Found this one a bit tough. But once i found these lines,

Tolstoi reversed all preconceptions; and in every reversal he overthrew the “system,” the “machine,” the externally ordained belief, the conventional behavior in favor of unsystematic, impulsive life, of inward motivation and the solutions of independent thought.

the ans. was obvious. Other options can be eliminated easily. For eg there is not political view point per se mentioned. Its more of an example, a support to the author's believes.

26.a

It was direct.

The apparently fundamental changes that led from epic narrative to dogmatic parable, from a joyous, buoyant attitude toward life to pessimism and cynicism, from War and Peace to The Kreutzer Sonata, came from the same restless, impressionable depths of an independent spirit yearning to get at the truth of its experience.

But one has to be careful to know for sure that the author is trying to tell the chronological order when he says "from War and Peace to The Kreutzer Sonata". Once that is clear the first option can be acception as the correct without even bothering abt the rest.

27. ?

I had two options left b and e. However may be my comprehension was not good enough and i eliminated e option coz it dint make much sense to me. So I was left with the wrong ans.


My reading speed is abt 180-200. If i try to read faster my comprehension will suffer. I can cross 250 wpm in newspaper articles where i am aware of the subject. But for unknown topics this is the limit. But i try to hurry a bit through the questions in order to make up for the lost time.

The knowledge that i have gained from my experiences is that its better to und the passage then to go back and forth, scrolling up and down and finally losing track of what the question was. Since time is really a limitation its very easy to get bogged down and screw up the RC. I do realize that some of my methods to get to the ans might not be "correct". But thats the way i have been doing and its difficult to change it. Plus frankly speaking i dont know any other way.

Hope I have made myself clear.

Just wanted to bump this.

I also believe E is the correct answer.

Where do we infer that Tolstoy’s magical simplicity is a product of his “facility in exact descriptions”?



Posted from my mobile device

pathy AdityaHongunti
Sajjad1994, bm2201 GMATNinja, GMATNinjaTwo

Struggling with :
1. Q3 ( Why not D)
2. Q7( Why not E)
3. not able to understand the purpose of this line in the passage: Others were awed by Napoleon, believed that a single man could change the destinies of nations, adhered to meaningless rituals, formed their tastes on established canons of art.. What author wants to refer here? What "Others" signifies here?

Any help is appreciated.
Sajjad1994, bm2201 GMATNinja, GMATNinjaTwo

Thanks!

Hi mSKR,

1. Q3 ( Why not D)



Lines mentioned in the passage: "Tolstoi’s simplicity is “overpowering,” says the critic Bayley, “disconcerting,” because it comes from “his casual assumption that the world is as he sees it.” Like other nineteenth-century Russian writers he is “impressive” because he “means what he says,” but he stands apart from all others and from most Western writers in his identity with life, which is so complete as to make us forget he is an artist. He is the center of his work, but his egocentricity is of a special kind. Goethe, for example, says Bayley, “cared for nothing but himself. Tolstoi was nothing but himself.”"

We cannot infer D from the highlighted part. True that he did make casual assumptions, but we cannot say infer that he works casually or the assumptions are unwarranted.


2. Q7( Why not E)

I checked some reliable sources and looks like the OA should be E, I have updated the same, but I will still add the debatable tag for Question 7, unless we have an the correct OE for this Question.

3. not able to understand the purpose of this line in the passage: Others were awed by Napoleon, believed that a single man could change the destinies of nations, adhered to meaningless rituals, formed their tastes on established canons of art.. What author wants to refer here? What "Others" signifies here?

Others here is means that Tolstoi believed in his own version of truth, not how different people, authors/other sources perceived it. Like how other writers believed Napoleon to be a great leader and were awed by him, Tolstoy reversed all preconceptions and wrote his own version of truth that he believed in.

Hope This Helps.
Thanks.