How to answer Prose Summary Questions? | Reading for TOEFL PDF Download

Prose Summary Questions

These items measure your ability to understand and recognize the major ideas and the relative importance of information in a passage. You will be asked to select the major ideas in the passage by distinguishing them from minor ideas or ideas that are not in the passage. The correct answer choice will synthesize major ideas in the passage. Because the correct answer represents a synthesis of ideas, it will not match any particular sentence from the passage. To select the correct answer, you will need to create a mental framework to organize and remember major ideas and other important information. Understanding the relative importance of information in a passage is critical to this ability.
In a Prose Summary question, you will be given six answer choices and asked to pick the three that express the most important ideas in the passage. Unlike the Basic Information questions, each of which is worth just one point, a Prose Summary question can be worth either one or two points depending on how many correct answers you choose. If you choose no correct answers or just one correct answer, you will earn no points. If you choose two correct answers, you will earn one point. If you choose all three correct answers, you will earn two points. The order in which you choose your answers does not matter for scoring purposes.

Example

Because the Prose Summary question asks you to show an understanding of the different parts of the passage it is necessary to read the entire passage. Parts of the following passage have already been used to illustrate other question types.

Applied Arts and Fine Arts

Although we now tend to refer to the various crafts according to the materials used to construct them—clay, glass, wood, fiber, and metal—it was once common to think of crafts in terms of function, which led to their being known as the “applied arts.” Approaching crafts from the point of view of function, we can divide them into simple categories: containers, shelters, and supports.
There is no way around the fact that containers, shelters, and supports must be functional. The applied arts are thus bound by the laws of physics, which .pertain to both the materials used in their making and the substances and things to be contained, supported, and sheltered. These laws are universal in their application, regardless of cultural beliefs, geography, or climate. If a pot has no bottom or has large openings in its sides, it could hardly be considered a container in any traditional sense. Since the laws of physics, not some arbitrary decision, have determined the general form of applied-art objects, they follow basic patterns, so much so that functional forms can vary only within certain limits. Buildings without roofs, for example, are unusual because they depart from the norm. However, not all functional objects are exactly alike; that is why we recognize a Shang Dynasty vase as being different from an Inca vase. What varies is not the basic form but the incidental details that do not obstruct the object’s primary function.
Sensitivity to physical laws is thus an important consideration for the maker of applied-art objects. It is often taken for granted that this is also true for the maker of fine-art objects. This assumption misses a significant difference between the two disciplines. Fine-art objects are not constrained by the laws of physics in the same way that applied-art objects are. Because their primary purpose is not functional, they are only limited in terms of the materials used to make them. Sculptures must, for example, be stable, which requires an understanding of the properties of mass, weight distribution, and stress. Paintings must have rigid stretchers so the canvas will be taut, and the paint must not deteriorate, crack, or discolor. These are problems that must be overcome by the artist because they tend to intrude upon his or her conception of the work. For example, in the early Italian Renaissance, bronze statues of horses with a raised foreleg usually had a cannonball under that hoof. This was done because the cannonball was needed to support the weight of the leg. In other words, the demands of the laws of physics, not the sculptor’s aesthetic intentions, placed the ball there. That this device was a necessary structural compromise is clear from the fact that the cannonball quickly disappeared when sculptors learned how to strengthen the internal structure of a statue with iron braces (iron being much stronger than bronze).
Even though the fine arts in the twentieth century often treat materials in new ways, the basic difference in the attitude of artists in relation to their materials in the fine arts and the applied arts remains relatively constant, it would therefore not be too great an exaggeration to say that practitioners of the fine arts work to overcome the limitations of their materials, whereas those engaged in the applied arts work in concert with their materials.
An introductory sentence for a brief summary of the passage is provided below. Complete the summary by selecting the THREE answer choices that express the most important ideas in the passage. Some sentences do not belong in the summary because they express ideas that are not presented in the passage or are minor ideas in the passage. This question is worth 2 points.
This passage discusses fundamental differences between apptied-art objects and fine-art objects. 

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Answer Choices
1. The fine arts are only affected by the laws of physics because of the limitations of the materials that are used. 
2. Applied-art objects are bound by the laws of physics in two ways: by the materials used to make them, and by the function they are to serve.
3. Crafts are known as “applied arts”  because it used to be common to think of them in terms of their function.
4. In the fine arts, artists must work to overcome the limitations of their materials, but in the applied arts, artists work in concert with their materials.
5. Making fine-art objects stable requires an understanding of the properties of mass, weight, distribution, and stress.
6. In the twentieth century, artists working in the fine arts often treat materials in new ways whereas applied arts specialists continue to think of crafts in terms of function.

Explanation

Correct Choice:
Choice 2: Applied-art objects are bound by the laws of physics in two ways: by the materials used to make them, and the function they are to serve.

This answer is correct because it represents the major theme of the first paragraph. It is a broad statement of a general, overriding fact. The paragraph then provides support for that general statement with several specific examples of how the laws of physics apply to all applied-art objects. The examples are presented in over five or six sentences.

Choice 4: In the fine arts, artists must work to overcome the limitations of their materials, but in the applied arts, artists work in concert with their materials.

This answer is correct because it summarizes the basic compare-contrast relationship of the entire passage. Although the last sentence of the passage is nearly identical to this answer choice, the able reader with a well-developed mental framework of the passage will recognize that this is not a minor, discrete point. Like the first correct answer choice, this is a broad, general statement, in this case about both applied and fine arts. The first two paragraphs of the passage are devoted to providing support for this statement with numerous examples throughout the passage.

Choice 6: In the twentieth century, artists working in the fine arts often treat materials in new ways whereas applied arts specialists continue to think of crafts in terms of function.

This answer is also correct in that it is a general statement about the ongoing and fundamental distinction between applied arts and fine arts. Like the previous correct answer choice it is nearly identical to a sentence in the passage (the first sentence of the last paragraph). It reaffirms that the distinctions discussed and illustrated in the first two paragraphs are read and that the evidence presented about them is sound.

Incorrect Choices:

Choice 1: The fine arts are only affected by the laws of physics because of the limitations of the materials that are used. 

This answer is incorrect because it is a minor point mentioned in sentence 4 of paragraph 2. The statement is true, but it is made only to support the broader theme (of the second correct answer choice above) about the differences between the two forms of art. Thus, it is used as an example in support of a major idea and is not itself one of the major themes in the passage.

Choice 3: Crafts are known as “applied arts" because it used to be common to think of them in terms of their function.

This choice is not correct because it is a minor point. It is mentioned as part of the passage's first, introductory sentence and then is never developed further. It is a true statement from the text, but is merely stated once without further elaboration.

Choice 5: Making fine-art objects stable requires an understanding of the properties of mass, weight, distribution, and stress.

This answer choice is also a minor point and is therefore not correct. Like the other incorrect choices, it is true and mentioned in the passage (in paragraph 2, sentence 5). However, it too is raised only as an example. Much like the first incorrect answer choice, it is presented as an example of how fine artists are constrained by physics and is not itself a major theme in the passage.