Writing: Argument Passage | The Complete SAT Course - Class 10 PDF Download

Judithe Hernandez’s art career began in Los Angeles during the socially and politically turbulent 1960s. While enrolled as a graduate student at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, Hernandez met fellow student Carlos Almaraz, one of the founding [1] members of the Chicano artist collective known as “Los Four.” At Almaraz’s request, Hernandez joined “Los Four” as its fifth, and only female, member. Hernandez became well known for her work with this revolutionary group of artists, who are credited with [2] authorizing Chicano art as its own distinctive school of (US) American art. [3]
Less known but equally important, however, is the role Hernandez played in providing a female voice within what was at that time a predominantly male Chicano art movement.
Chicano art began as an outgrowth of the more general Chicano Civil Rights [4] Movement;_ a sociopolitical initiative that began in the 1960s to promote social progress and change for Mexican-Americans. [5] Chicano artists sought to mirror the challenges faced by Mexican-Americans, often by challenging the xenophobic stereotypes of Mexican-Americans in American culture. However, since the vast majority of Chicano artists were men, much of the Chicano artwork of the 1960s and early 1970s represented the experiences of Mexican-American men, failing to represent some of the unique struggles faced by their female counterparts. [6]
During her time with “Los Four,” Hernandez developed a distinct visual style as she incorporated indigenous images along with figurative portrayals of Hispanic women, often restrained by elements such as vines or thorns. The significance of her contributions to the Chicano art movement [7] were recognized as early as 1981, when Hernandez was commissioned by the Los Angeles Bicentennial Committee to produce a mural in celebration of the city’s 200th anniversary. [8]
The mural portrays La Reina de Los Angeles (the patroness of the city) engaging with images of the past and present. In it, Hernandez juxtaposes images of male and female farmers with more opulent depictions of modern Los Angeles, [9] but underscoring the invaluable work of Mexican-American men and women in the construction of the city.
Since the 1970s, Hernandez has exhibited additional forms of visual art beyond the mural work that characterized much of her early career. In her recent pastel-on-paper series entitled “Adam and Eve,” Hernandez uses iconic religious images to highlight the [10] unequal, gender relations in Chicano culture. Through works such as these, Hernandez continues to provide a voice for Chicano [11] women. Highlighting the unique challenges that they face in America every day. For these questions, you will consider how the passage might be revised to improve the expression of ideas or to correct the errors in sentence structure, usage, or punctuation. Some questions will direct you to an underlined portion of the passage or a location in the passage. Others will ask you to think about the passage as a whole.
Many questions include a “NO CHANGE” option. Choose that option if you think the best choice is to leave the relevant portion of the passage as it is.

Q.1. Choose 1 answer:
(a) NO CHANGE
(b) artists who started
(c) members who created and belonged to
(d) creators who began

Correct Answer is Options (a)
Option A offers clear and concise wording and is the best answer. The other choices are redundant and add unnecessary wording.

Q.2. Choose 1 answer:
(a) NO CHANGE
(b) establishing
(c) permitting
(d) approving

Correct Answer is Options (b)
Option B is the best answer because it appropriately indicates that the artists were the original creators of a recognizable genre. The other options do not accurately convey the intended meaning.

Q.3. Which choice most effectively establishes the central claim of the passage?
(a) NO CHANGE
(b) The Chicano Movement, also known as “El Movimiento,” began in the 1940s with the explicit goal of empowering Mexican-Americans.
(c) Judithe Hernandez was born to a progressive Mexican-American family in Los Angeles that encouraged her involvement in the arts from an early age.
(d) In the 1960s, Chicano art was often displayed as public murals intended to create a dialogue about the issues faced by Mexican-Americans.

Correct Answer is Options (a)
Option A is the best answer because it clearly establishes the central claim of the passage. The other options provide information that is only loosely related to the passage or does not establish the central claim.

Q.4. Choose 1 answer:
(a) NO CHANGE
(b) Movement, which was:
(c) Movement—
(d) Movement

Correct Answer is Options (a)
The paragraph describes the origin and intent of Chicano art. The underlined sentence contains vital information about why the Chicano art movement began and what it was intended to accomplish. It should be kept.

Q.5. The writer is considering deleting the underlined sentence. Should the writer make this deletion?
(a) Yes, because the topic of Chicano artists is irrelevant to the main idea of the paragraph.
(b) Yes, because it provides information that is already present elsewhere in the passage.
(c) No, because it helps to develop the main topic of the paragraph.
(d) No, because it effectively transitions between the topics of male Chicano artists and female Chicano artists.

Correct Answer is Options (a)
The paragraph describes the origin and intent of Chicano art. The underlined sentence contains vital information about why the Chicano art movement began and what it was intended to accomplish. It should be kept.

Q.6. At this point, the writer wants to provide a transition that effectively links the topics of the second and third paragraphs. Which choice best accomplishes this goal?
(a) As one of the first prominent US artists to depict the experiences of Mexican-American women, Judithe Hernandez played a vital role in the Chicano art movement.
(b) All of the members of “Los Four” were college-educated artists who served as activists and educators within the Chicano movement.
(c) Hernandez and Alvarez collaborated together on a number of public murals for the United Nations Farm Workers and the Ramona Gardens Housing Project in East Los Angeles.
(d) Chicano artists were heavily influenced by artists from the Mexican Mural Movement, particularly Diego Rivera.

Correct Answer is Options (a)
This sentence appropriately bridges the two topics. The previous paragraph ended by stating that Chicano art was male-dominated. The next paragraph discusses how Hernandez's art was important because it integrated female themes into Chicano artwork.

Q.7. Choose 1 answer:
(a) NO CHANGE
(b) is
(c) was
(d) have been

Correct Answer is Options (a)
This choice is the best answer because it maintains agreement between the singular subject “significance” and the singular verb “was.”

Q.8. The writer wants to smoothly incorporate the mural’s title, “Remembrances of Yesterday, Dreams of Tomorrow,” into the underlined sentence. Which choice most effectively accomplishes this goal?
(a) The mural portrays La Reina de Los Angeles (the patroness of the city) engaged with images of the past and present, and the mural is entitled “Remembrances of Yesterday, Dreams of Tomorrow.”
(b) The mural portrays La Reina de Los Angeles (the patroness of the city), and is entitled “Remembrances of Yesterday, Dreams of Tomorrow,” while showing the patroness engaged with images of the past and present.
(c) The mural, entitled “Remembrances of Yesterday, Dreams of Tomorrow,” portrays La Reina de Los Angeles (the patroness of the city) engaging with images of the past and present.
(d) The mural being entitled “Remembrances of Yesterday, Dreams of Tomorrow,” it portrays La Reina de Los Angeles (the patroness of the city) engaging with images of the past and present.

Correct Answer is Options (b)
This choice results in a punctuation error. Notice that the compound verb "portrays... and is entitled" is broken by a comma. Also, notice that "the patroness" is awkwardly repeated.

Q.9. Choose 1 answer:
(a) NO CHANGE
(b) also underscores
(c) and still underscoring
(d) Underscoring

Correct Answer is Options (d)
The correct answer is D because it grammatically and logically subordinates a dependent clause (“underscoring the invaluable work of Mexican-American men and women in the construction of the city”). The other options result in faulty sentence structure due to the use of coordinating conjunctions where they shouldn't be used, or a verb with no clear subject.

Q.10. Choose 1 answer:
(a) NO CHANGE
(b) unequal; gender
(c) unequal gender
(d) unequal—gender

Correct Answer is Options (c)
The correct answer is C because no punctuation is needed between the adjective “unequal” and the noun phrase “gender relations.” The other options contain unnecessary punctuation, such as a comma, semicolon, or dash.

Q.11. Choose 1 answer:
(a) NO CHANGE
(b) women, highlighting
(c) women, she highlights
(d) women. And highlighting

Correct Answer is Options (b)
The correct answer is B because it links a dependent clause to an independent clause with a comma. The other options result in a sentence fragment, comma splice, or a rhetorically inappropriate sentence fragment.