PT79.S.Q13 - best known for her work with lacquer

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• dantlee14 Free Trial Member

  June 2017 edited June 2017 617 karma

  Hi Haleigh;

  This was definitely a really tough RC passage. For question 13, I was tempted by A as well; it seems textually supported, and line 32 is a huge red herring (as is line 37/8). But I think it's useful here (and in general on RC) to take a step back and look at the structure and point of that paragraph; it's more about illustrating the transition from Gray's early work to her later work in interior design and architecture, and how elements of lacquering - although not always readily apparent - was critical in all of her work throughout her career.

  The fact that she used lacquer on non-traditional materials like brick seems less like a guiding principle in her work in interior design, and more like an example of the "tension between aesthetic demands and structural requirements" (lines 20-21), which I saw as the main point of that paragraph. That point is repeated again in reference to tubular steel (lines 37-39); it's not necessarily important that she used that specific material (and it doesn't actually say that she used traditional lacquering techniques on steel; i.e. an intricately layered paint), but instead used it to create furniture that although "visually austere, meet their occupants' needs."

  B, on the other hand, is pretty much rephrasing lines 41-43, and very strongly supported by the entirety of the final paragraph. And because it's stated that "Gray did not believe one should divorce the interior from the exterior," I found it more likely that this idea was an actual guiding principle in her work as an architect.

  I should add a warning that I by no means got this passage perfect on the first try; but that was how I basically reasoned through question 13, and found B a much more attractive option in the end.