Theater Critic: The play La Finestrina, now at Central Theater, was written in Italy in the eighteenth century. The director claims that this production is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater. Although the actor who plays Harlequin the clown gives a performance very reminiscent of the twentieth-century American comedian Groucho Marx, Marx's comic style was very much within the comic acting tradition that had begun in sixteenth-century Italy.
The considerations given best serve as part of an argument that
102. Theater Critic: The play La Finestrina, now at Central Theater, was written in Italy in the eighteenth century. The director claims that this production is as similar to the original production as is possible in a modern theater. Although the actor who plays Harlequin the clown gives a performance very reminiscent of the twentieth-century American comedian Groucho Marx, Marx’s comic style was very much within the comic acting tradition that had begun in sixteenth-century Italy.
The considerations given best serve as part of an argument that (A) modern audiences would fi nd it hard to tolerate certain characteristics of a historically accurate performance of an eighteenth-century play (B) Groucho Marx once performed the part of the character Harlequin in La Finestrina (C) in the United States the training of actors in the twentieth century is based on principles that do not differ radically from those that underlay the training of actors in eighteenth-century Italy (D) the performance of the actor who plays Harlequin in La Finestrina does not serve as evidence against the director’s claim (E) the director of La Finestrina must have advised the actor who plays Harlequin to model his performance on comic performances of Groucho Marx
Step one of the Kaplan method tells us to read the question stem, and then to determine the kind of question that it is. The question stem:
“The considerations given best serve as part of an argument that”
Okay, so there are considerations given (by the author) leading up to an argument. The “considerations given” is evidence, and the question wants us to determine the author’s main point, or conclusion. We call this type of question a “main point” question.
Step two is to analyze the stimulus: Normally, we identify a conclusion by looking for words like “thus, therefore, hence, etc.” .... BUT, in a main point question, we actually don’t want to be attracted by those kind of words-they are put there by the test-maker because they know you will naturally be attracted to them in a main point question.
Instead, in a main point question, the author’s main point will often be signalled by a contrast keyword such as “but,” “however,” “while,” or, “although.”
In the passage of this question, we learn of the director’s claim in the second sentence. The director’s claim is that their reproduction of the play is a lot like the original play. The next sentence starts with the word “although.” Here, the function of “although” is to dismiss potential counter-evidence against the director’s claim: the fact that the actor is like 20th century Groucho Marx could be used against the director’s claim (that the reproduction is a faithful representation of the original 16th century version.)
So from the word “although,” and using some critical reasoning, we can determine that the author’s intent in arguing is to defend the director’s claim against evidence that could go against it (against the director’s claim).
Step three of the method is to make a prediction of the right answer. Say to yourself: “The author is defending the director. The author’s main point is that the director’s claim is correct.”
Step four is to aggressively scan for a match to the prediction. Because we spent so much time generating the prediction, and because we don’t care about wrong answers and why they are wrong, we scan for a choice that matches our insight.