- [Instructor] Let's take a look at a conclusion question.
Now, intro and conclusion questions occur
two to three times on your official SAT.
And they'll either look something like,
which choice best introduces the paragraph?
Or the writer wants a conclusion that states
the main claim of the passage,
which choice best accomplishes this goal?
That's what introduction or conclusion questions
tend to look like.
Now here in question 33,
we see the writer wants a conclusion that reiterates
the main idea expressed in the passage,
which choice best accomplishes this goal?
What this question is essentially asking us
is to first identify the main idea
represented in the passage.
And in order to do that, we're gonna have to access
our reading skills and figure that out for ourselves.
This is the last question about this passage.
And so if you were doing this on test day,
you would have already read the whole passage
by the time you got to this question.
You would likely have worked your way
through the other questions
as you were working your way through the passage.
But since you might be coming to this video cold,
I'm going to go through the entire passage,
paragraph by paragraph and I'm going to restate the point
of each paragraph in my own words as I read.
Legal nonrepresentation, paragraph one.
All my life, the sculptor Constantine Brancusi remarked
I have been seeking to capture the essence of flight.
Bird in Space as a work of abstract art.
It is not a readily recognizable representation
of the Bird in its title
but rather a polished arc of bronze that calls
to mind the animals' graceful airborne motion
with its end tapering into points.
Much of the slender 53 inch curve appear suspended
in the air above its marble base.
More than just a visually arresting sculpture then,
Bird in Space was responsible
for changing how the US government recognizes art.
So this paragraph is introducing the sculptor Brancusi
the sculpture Bird in Space
and it's saying Bird in Space changed
how the US government recognizes art.
Paragraph two,
In the 1920s abstract art like Brancusi's
was a new phenomenon a sharp contrast
to more traditionally representational paintings
and statues.
So it is perhaps unsurprising
that Bird in Space received a mixed reception.
The general public struggled
to find artistic value in the sculpture.
Indeed many struggled to see it as a work of art at all.
One newspaper likened it to half an airplane propeller
while also calling it a tall slender
highly polished object.
Within the art world,
however, Bird in Space was recognized
as a beautiful and innovative work of modern sculpture.
Such recognition led the art collector
Edward Steichen to buy the piece and have it shipped
to his New York city home from Brancusi's Paris studio.
So this paragraph I would summarize
as Bird in Space got a mixed reception.
Paragraph three.
The importation of the sculpture brought it
to the attention of the US Customs Bureau.
The agency's view reflected that
of the general public when Bird in Space came
to the United States from France
the Customs Bureau classified it
not as a work of art, but as an industrial object.
That classification carried
with it substantial consequences.
Works of art could be imported
to the United States duty free
but industrial materials were taxed at rates
of up to 40% of their purchase value.
As a result Bird in Space faced an import tax
of $229.35 more than a third
of the 600 Stetchen paid for it.
So for paragraph three, let's say a customs dispute.
Is it art or an industrial object?
Brancusi in turn sued the US government,
aiming to score recognition of his sculpture as art.
The resultant 1927 court case Brancusi
versus the United States attempted
to answer for the American public
the question of whether abstract works
like Brancusi's should be considered art.
After hearing a lineup
of well-known famous art critics testified
to the aesthetic value and originality
of non-representational art like Bird in Space,
the court's ruling was in favor of Brancusi.
The decision meant that the public had finally
come to recognize the artistic value
of non-representational art.
So cutting out that final sentence
because that's question 33,
that's the question we're considering.
We'll have to summarize this paragraph
without using the final sentence of the paragraph
because the final sentence
of the paragraph is the subject of question 33.
And that sentence could change depending
on the choice that we make,
which means that the way I'm going
to summarize this paragraph is
by saying Brancusi prevailed in court,
his sculpture was art.
And now let's go down to the question itself
and compare all of those paragraph summaries.
So paragraph, one Bird in Space changed
how the government recognizes art.
Paragraph two, the sculpture got a mixed reception.
Paragraph three, a customs dispute
is it art or an industrial object?
And paragraph four Brancusi prevailed in court
his sculpture was art.
We've summarized these paragraphs in our own words.
And now using those summaries
I'm going to try to predict the answer.
So the sculpture changed how the government
saw art Bird in Space went from being an industrial object
in the eyes of the us government to being a work of art.
So I'm gonna to be looking for a choice that suggests
that Brancusi's art is being perceived
as art by the government.
So let's slice and dice, shall we?
So we want a choice that best reiterate the main idea.
The main idea is
that Brancusi's art is art in the eyes of the government.
And that means the choice A is pretty close, right?
Choice A is the decision meant that the public
had finally come to recognize the artistic value
of non-representational art.
That's the no change option.
I'm not gonna to cross that off for now.
Choice B was a great victory for art collectors
like Steichen a major impediment
to their ability to import artworks
from Europe had been eliminated
but that's about art collectors.
That's not about the status of the art
so we can cross that off.
choice C, I would forever broaden the range.
of art acknowledged by the US government.
That sounds promising so far
from then on customs law would have recognize
both abstract and traditional works
within the category of art,
that's new information and while this
is an interesting choice that matches part of my prediction.
it's adding new information and not reiterating.
Remember the question wants us to reiterate the main idea
not reiterate the main idea and add new information.
And choice D, concerning the value of abstract works such
as Bird in Space would take many more years to be made
in the court of public opinion however.
Again, this is compelling information,
but it is new and we need to be reiterating.
So I would say this is not our choice either.
In questions like this, "every choice is grammatically sound
and they're written to sound good"
So that leads me to an important top tip.
Don't just choose the answer that sounds best,
select the option that actually
answers the question being asked.
We're being asked to select a choice
that reiterate the main idea.
So we have to remain super focused on that.
Just finding something that says that main idea again
and not going far a field and introducing new information.
So we've done all of this and we're left with choice A.
So this is a no change answer,
which can be frustrating because it was fine all along.
But I think that this question still gives us
a great opportunity to practice the skills of summarizing
and the skills of finding the main idea
of a passage that enable you
to answer these questions quickly.
Test the choices against what you feel.
The main idea of the passage is
and look out for things that feel unsupported
or over broad that make claims
that don't appear elsewhere in the passage.