TOEFL IBT Reading Practice Test 22 from Delta's Key to the TOEFL Test

TOEFL IBT Reading Practice Test 22 from Delta’s Key to the Next Generation TOEFL Test – Six Practice Tests for The iBT by Nancy Gallagher

Reading Section Directions

The Reading section measures your ability to read and understand passages in English. You will read three passages and answer questions about them. Answer all questions based on what is stated or implied in the passages.

Most questions are worth one point. The last question in each set is worth more than one point. For this question, the directions will indicate how many points you can receive.

Some passages have one or more words in bold type. For these bolded words, you will see a definition in a glossary at the end of the passage.

Allow 20 minutes to read each passage and answer the questions about it. You may now begin the first passage.

DADA AND POP ART

1 Dada was a subversive movement in the arts that flourished mainly in France, Switzerland, and Germany from 1916 to 1923. Dada was based on the principles of deliberate irrationality and anarchy. 11 rejected laws of beauty and social organization and attempted to discover authentic reality through the destruction of traditional culture and aesthetic forms. The movement’s founders included the French artist Jean Arp and the writers Tristan Tzara and Hugo Bail. At a meeting of young artists in 1916 in Zurich, one of them inserted a paper knife into a French-German dictionary. The knife pointed to the word dada, a French baby-talk word for a hobby-horse, which the group saw as an appropriate term for their anti-art.

2 Dada emerged from despair over the First World War and disgust for the conservative values of society. Dada was the first expression of protest against the war. Dadaists used absurdity to create artworks that mocked society yet defied intellectual analysis, such as the use of “found” objects in sculptures and installations. The forerunner of the Dadaists, and ultimately their leading member, was Marcel Duchamp, who in 1913 created his first “ready-made,” the Bicycle Wheel, consisting of a wheel mounted on the seat of a stool, hi his effort to discourage aesthetics, Duchamp shocked the art establishment with these ready mades—manufactured objects that he selected and exhibited—including a bottle rack and a comb. The Dada movement extended to literature and music and became international after the war. In the United States the movement was centered in New York City. Dadaists on both sides of the Atlantic had one goal in common: to demolish current aesthetic standards.

3 Fifty years after the Dadaists, another generation of artists reacted to the standards and values of society. However, instead of rejecting ordinary things, the young artists of the Pop movement of the 1960s embraced them. Pop artists were curious about the commercial media, of ads, billboards, newsprint, television, and all aspects of popular culture. Thus, the barrier between “high” and “low” art collapsed, which the Dadaists had aimed for and the Pop artists attained with an energy not seen before.

4 Pop art received its name from critic Lawrence Alloway, who considered Pop to be the culture of the mass media, photographs, and posters—a style that must be popular, transitory, and witty, The subject matter of Pop art was derivative, depicting something that had already been published or produced, such as comic strips, soft–drink bottles, and photographs of movie stars. Pop art caught on quickly; it was art about mass consumption that was eagerly consumed by the masses.

5 The most popular of the Pop artists was the painter Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtcnstein painted enlarged copies of the least “arty” things he could find: romance and adventure comic strips. He was the first American artist to react to comic strips, finding beauty in these crude designs, along with a distinct sense of style. Lichtenstein also painted other pictorial styles, including blowups of other artists’ brushstrokes and parodies of Cubism and Art Deco.

6 Andy Warhol, more than any other Pop artist, took on the mind-numbing overload of American mass culture. Warhol began his career as a commercial illustrator, and in 1962 he had his first exhibition in an art gallery, where he showed his 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans. The thirty-two soup cans are about sameness: same brand, same size, same paint surface, and same fame. They mimic the condition of mass advertising. All of Warhol’s work flowed from one central insight: mass culture is filled with images that become meaningless by being repeated again and again, and in this glut of information is a role for art. Warhol felt this and embodied it. He conveyed a collective state of mind in which celebrity—a famous brand name or the image of a famous person—had completely replaced sacredness in art.

1. According to the passage, the main goal of the Dada movement was to

(A) stimulate public interest in art

(B) change the goals of art education

(D) make mass media the subject of art

2. The author mentions a hobby-horse in paragraph 1 in order to

(A) explain the origin of the name “Dada”

(B) illustrate how Dadaists created art

(D) give an example of a “ready-made”

3. According to the passage, one way in which the Dadaists mocked society was by

(A) refusing to fight in the First World War

(B) writing plays about social class

(D) criticizing the commercial media

4. The word forerunner in paragraph 2 is closest in meaning to

(A) leading writer

(B) earliest artist

(D) fastest runner

5. The passage gives all of the following as examples of “ready-mades” EXCEPT

(A) a bicycle wheel

(B) a bottle rack

(D) a comb

6. The word them in paragraph 3 refers to

(A) the Dadaists

(B) standards and values

(D) the young artists

7. It can be inferred from paragraph 3 that the Pop artists

(A) reacted against the Dada movement

(B) were more popular than the Dadaists

(D) succeeded in changing ideas about art

8. Which sentence below best expresses the essential information in the highlighted sentence in paragraph 41 Incorrect choices change the meaning in important ways or leave out essential information.

(A) Pop art could be produced and consumed more quickly than any other mass media.

(B) The public enthusiastically accepted Pop art, which portrayed commercial culture.

(D) Large numbers of people bought Pop art, even though they could not understand it.

9. Which artist created works based on other styles and the work of other artists?

(A) Marcel Duchamp

(B) Lawrence Alloway

(D) Andy Warhol

10. The phrase took on in paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to

(A) hated

(B) was afraid of

(D) responded to

11. The word glut in paragraph 6 is closest in meaning to

(A) excess

(B) definition

(D) absence

12. Look at the four squares, [A], [B], [C], [D] which indicate where the following sentence could be added to the passage. Where would the sentence best fit?

Whereas the visual arts had previously ignored current events, Dadaists reacted to the crisis and accused society of allowing it to happen.

Dada emerged from despair over the First World War and disgust for the conservative values of society. Dada was the first expression of protest against the war. [A] Dadaists used absurdity to create artworks that mocked society yet defied intellectual analysis, such as the use of “found” objects in sculptures and installations. [B] The forerunner of the Dadaists, and ultimately their leading member, was Marcel Duchamp, who in 1913 created his first “ready¬made,” the Bicycle Wheel, consisting of a wheel mounted on the seat of a stool. In his effort to discourage aesthetics, Duchamp shocked the art establishment with these ready-mades— manufactured objects that he selected and exhibited—including a bottle rack and a comb. [C] The Dada movement extended to literature and music and became international after the war.[D] In the United States the movement was centered in New York City. Dadaists on both sides of the Atlantic had one goal in common: to demolish current aesthetic standards.

13. Select the appropriate phrases from the answer choices and match them to the art movement that they describe. TWO of the answer choices will NOT be used. This question is worth 4 points.

Answer Choices (A) Reflected the mass media of advertising, newsprint, and television (B) Was an anti-art movement in the visual arts, literature and music (C) Focused on transitory impressions and the changing effects of light (D) Depicted things that had already been produced in other media (E) Originated as a protest against the First World War (F) Found beauty in comic strips and other images from popular culture (G) Emphasized the act of creating art over the finished work of art (H) Used “found” objects and “ready-mades” in works of art (I) Created art out of famous brand names and images of famous people	Dada
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	Pop Art
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