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GMAT-Reading Comprehension
This passage is relating to Humanities:
The questions 1,2 & 3 are based on this passage.This same passage will appear for the next question as well.
Read both the Passage and the questions carefully
Great comic art is never otherworldly, it does not seek to mystify us, and it does not deny ambiguity by branding as evil whatever differs from good. Great comic artists assume that truth may bear all lights, and thus they seek to accentuate contradictions in social action, not gloss over or transcend them by appeals to extra social symbols of divine ends, cosmic purpose, or laws of nature. The moment of transcendence in great comic art is a social moment, born out of the conviction that we are human, even though we try to be gods. The comic community to which artists address themselves is a community of reasoning loving, joyful, compassionate beings, who are willing to assume the human risks of acting rationally. Without invoking gods or demons, great comic art arouses courage in reason; courage which grows out of trust in what human beings can do as humans.
[The difficult words in this passage are otherworldly (strange), mystify (puzzle), ambiguity (doubt), accentuate (emphasize), gloss over (disregard), transcend (go beyond), compassionate (sympathetic) and rationally (logically)].
1. The passage suggests that great comic art can be characterized as optimistic about the ability of humans to
(A) rid themselves of pride
(B) transcend the human condition
(C) differentiate clearly between good and evil
(D) avoid social conflicts
(E) act rationally
Because of the use of the verb ‘suggests’, this is an ‘inference’ question, the key phrase being ‘optimistic about the ability of human to… The penultimate sentence says that comic artists ‘are willing to assume the human risks of acting rationally’. Obviously, they are optimistic that it is possible for human beings to act rationally.
So, (E) is the answer.
You may be tempted to make the mistake of choosing C, because the words ‘good’ and ‘evil’ are found in the first sentence. But what the first sentence means is that, for the comic artist, whatever differs from good is not evil or, in other words, he does not distinguish clearly between good and evil, because even something which is evil may contain some good.
The following questions 2 & 3 are also based on this passage.This same passage will appear for those questions as well.
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