TOEFL. Reading. Main Idea

With Robert Laurent and William Zorach, direct carving enters into the story of modem sculpture in the United States. Direct carving – in which the sculptors themselves carve stone or wood with mallet and chisel – must be recognized as something more than just a technique. Implicit in it is an aesthetic principle as well: that the medium has certain qualities of beauty and expressiveness with which sculptors must bring their own aesthetic sensibilities into harmony. For example, sometimes the shape or veining in a piece of stone or wood suggests, perhaps even dictates, not only the ultimate form, but even the subject matter.

Question

What is the main idea of this pragraph?

Clue :

1. "With Robert Laurent and William Zorach," is prepositional phrase to give more information about ______
2. Check 2nd sentences. What is the subject of the sentence in the 2nd sentence.

• How Robert Laurent and William Zorach introduced direct carving.

• The definition of direct carving.

• The aesthetic principle of direct carving.

• The examples of direct carving.

The technique of direct carving was a break with the nineteenth-century tradition in which the making of a clay model was considered the creative act and the work was then turned over to studio assistants to be cast in plaster or bronze or carved in marble. Neoclassical sculptors seldom held a mallet or chisel in their own hands, readily conceding that the assistants they employed were far better than they were at carving the finished marble.

Question

What is the main idea of this paragraph?

Clue :

1. Check the subject of the sentence.
2. Guess the meaning of "a break with"

• How direct carving differs from the Neoclassical technique.

• How artists with direct carving approach create their work

• that Direct carving use the same method with the 19th-century artists

With the turn-of-the-century Crafts movement and the discovery of nontraditional sources of inspiration, such as wooden African figures and masks, there arose a new urge for hands-on, personal execution of art and an interaction with the medium. Even as early as the 1880's and 1890's, nonconformist European artists were attempting direct carving. By the second decade of the twentieth century, Americans – Laurent and Zorach most notably - had adopted it as their primary means of working.

Question

What is the topic of this paragraph?

Clue :

1. Check the subject of the first sentence (identify the Subject and Verb of the sentence)
2. Be careful with (,) to show prepositional phrase and example
3. Be careful with (,) for multiple adjectives used to describe a noun.

• How the artists get ideas for their work

• The desire to sculpt the artwork without assistants' help.

• The time when direct carving boomed

Born in France, Robert Laurent (1890-197Q) was a prodigy who received his education in the United States. In 1905 he was sent to Paris as an apprentice to an art dealer, and in the years that followed he witnessed the birth of Cubism, discovered primitive art, and learned the techniques of woodcarving from a frame maker.

Question

What is the subject of this parapgraph?

Clue

1. Check the 1st sentence.
2. Identify the subject and verb of the sentence.
3. Be careful with Past Participial Phrase.
4. Check the 2nd sentence (Does it have the same subject of the sentence with the 1st sentence)

• Robert Laurent's life path as an artist.

• Robert Laurent's success as an artist.

• Robert Laurent's works.

Back in New York City by 1910, Laurent began carving pieces such as The Priestess, which reveals his fascination with African, pre-Columbian, and South Pacific art. Taking a walnut plank, the sculptor carved the expressive, stylized design. It is one of the earliest examples of direct carving in American sculpture. The plank's form dictated the rigidly frontal view and the low relief. Even its irregular shape must have appealed to Laurent as a break with a long-standing tradition that required a sculptor to work within a perfect rectangle or square.

Question

What is the author's main point in this paragraph?

Clue

1. Check the 1st sentence. (identify the subject and the verb of the sentence)
2. be careful with Prepositional phrase in the beginning of the sentence.
3. Be careful with relative pronoun (which) for adjective clause
4. be careful with (,) for giving multiple examples.
5. Check the 2nd sentence. (does it have the same subject of the sentence?)

• How Laurent created his artworks.

• What Laurent used for his artworks.

• Why Laurent was interested in direct carving.