Question

Part A

Read the following excerpt from Mary Cassatt: Artist and Trailblazer.

One day, as Cassatt walked past a gallery window, she saw a pastel drawing by a boldly original French artist, Edgar Degas. She stopped in front of the window and stared at it. She could not tear herself away. The next day she returned to look at Degas’ work, and the next, and the next. “I used to go and flatten my nose against that window and absorb all I could of his art,” she wrote to a friend. “It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it.”

Some time later, Degas saw one of Cassatt’s portraits. He noticed that while she painted with the skill and grace of the old masters, she also mixed in the ideas and techniques of newer artists. In her work, he recognized a kindred spirit. It is said that after he looked at her painting, he cried to his friend, “There is someone who feels as I do!”

Edgar Degas was one of the first artists known as the Impressionists, a group that also included Claude Monet and Auguste Renoir. The Impressionists were a group of experimental artists who tried to capture on canvas a brief but true impression of people, places, or objects. They abandoned the old masters’ dark colors and smooth brushstrokes. Instead, they used bright, lively colors, and bold lines and brushstrokes. Instead of painting people in stiff, formal poses, they captured people in fleeting moments of everyday life. Degas, for example, painted ballet dancers in rehearsal or laundresses at work.

Which statement best expresses a central idea of this excerpt?

Group of answer choices

Cassatt began copying Degas’s paintings to gain fame.

Cassatt stopped painting traditional subjects after meeting Degas.

Cassatt’s encounter with Degas’s work inspired her to change her artistic style.

Degas disliked Cassatt’s approach to painting.

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Question 41 pts
Part B

Which quotation from the excerpt best supports the correct answer in Part A?

Group of answer choices

“He cried to his friend, ‘There is someone who feels as I do!’ ”

“Instead of painting people in stiff, formal poses, they captured people in fleeting moments of everyday life.”

“Some time later, Degas saw one of Cassatt’s portraits.”

“It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it.”

Answer 1

Part A: Cassatt’s encounter with Degas’s work inspired her to change her artistic style.

Part B: “It changed my life. I saw art then as I wanted to see it.”