Read the following passage.
A. Emily Carr was born in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1871, in a house built for her father, a merchant. She showed a talent for drawing as a child, and in 1891 she went to study at the California School of Design in San Francisco. A shortage of family money brought her home in 1893, and she taught art to children. Later she travelled to England with money saved from teaching and enrolled at the Westminster School of Art in London. Those years were hard. In 1903 she became ill with nervous strain and severe headaches, and she spent just over 14 months in a sanatorium before she returned to Victoria in 1904.
B. A stay in France in 1910 and 1911 changed the way Carr painted. Working outdoors in Brittany, she began to use vivid colours and bold outlines in the new French style called Post-Impressionism. Back in Vancouver in 1912, she showed more than 70 paintings from her time in France. That summer she travelled north to First Nations villages on the Skeena River and Haida Gwaii, and she made totem poles the centre of her pictures. She tried to persuade the provincial government to buy this collection, but she did not succeed.
C. For the next 14 years, Carr's main work was running an apartment building in Victoria called Hill House. She also bred sheepdogs and sold about 350 of them. In later life she said she had stopped painting in this period, but in fact she kept painting and showing her work. Her position changed in 1927, when Eric Brown, the director of the National Gallery of Canada, included her paintings in an exhibition in Ottawa. On that trip she met the painter Lawren Harris, leader of the Group of Seven. He suggested that she turn from the villages to the landscape, and she then painted the dense forests of the coast.
D. After a heart attack in 1937, Carr spent more time writing. Her book Klee Wyck, a collection of stories about her travels in the province and her meetings with First Nations people, was published in 1941 and won a Governor General's Award. She died in Victoria in 1945. Her pictures of the northern villages are now a disputed part of her work. Parks Canada still calls them a valuable record of those villages, but since the early 1990s some critics have felt that she knew little about First Nations art and took its images and stories for her own use.
E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.
Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.
AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.
Correct Answer: E
Why this is correct: Paragraph A says she showed a talent for drawing as a child and later studied in San Francisco. It does not say who first taught her, and it mentions no private lessons paid for by her father.
Passage Reference: She showed a talent for drawing as a child, and in 1891 she went to study at the California School of Design in San Francisco.
Tips: Ask whether the text ever says her father paid for private lessons for her.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A talks about her father and her early talent, so it is tempting, but no private lessons are mentioned.
- B: Paragraph B is about her time in France and her 1912 trip north. Her childhood is not mentioned.
- C: Paragraph C covers Hill House, the sheepdogs and the 1927 exhibition, not her early training.
- D: Paragraph D is about her writing, her death and the debate over her village pictures. Her childhood does not come up.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: Her book Klee Wyck, a collection of stories about her travels in the province and her meetings with First Nations people, was published in 1941 and won a Governor General's Award.
Why this is correct: Paragraph D says her book Klee Wyck was published in 1941. It won a Governor General's Award. So one of her books was given that prize.
Tips: The key word is 'book'. The only paragraph about her writing is the last one.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A lists the art schools she attended in San Francisco and London, but no book or prize.
- B: Paragraph B describes her French paintings and a show in Vancouver, not any writing.
- C: Look at paragraph C: it mentions a national gallery exhibition, which is an honour for painting, not a prize for a book.
- E: Klee Wyck and its Governor General's Award are both named in Paragraph D.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: Back in Vancouver in 1912, she showed more than 70 paintings from her time in France.
Why this is correct: Paragraph B says that back in Vancouver in 1912 she showed more than 70 paintings from her time in France. 'Over seventy' means the same as 'more than 70'.
Tips: Two paragraphs mention a show. Match the number 70 and the word 'France'.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A also has her coming home, but from England in 1904, and it mentions no show of paintings.
- C: The third paragraph describes an exhibition in Ottawa in 1927. But it gives no number of paintings and has no link to France.
- D: Her book, her death and the dispute over her village pictures fill paragraph D. No show of paintings is described.
- E: Her show of more than 70 French paintings in Vancouver is reported in Paragraph B.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: In 1903 she became ill with nervous strain and severe headaches, and she spent just over 14 months in a sanatorium before she returned to Victoria in 1904.
Why this is correct: Paragraph A says that while she was in England she became ill in 1903 with nervous strain. She spent just over 14 months in a sanatorium, a kind of hospital. Fourteen months is more than a year.
Tips: Two paragraphs mention health problems. Check the place and the time: England, in 1903.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Notice that paragraph B tells of her stay in France and her northern trip. It mentions no illness.
- C: The third paragraph is about her apartment building and her meeting with the painter Lawren Harris, not a stay in hospital.
- D: Notice that paragraph D mentions a heart attack in 1937. But that was later in life and in Canada, not while studying in England.
- E: The first paragraph reports the illness in 1903 and the stay of just over 14 months in a sanatorium.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: She also bred sheepdogs and sold about 350 of them.
Why this is correct: Besides running Hill House, she bred sheepdogs and sold about 350 of them. This comes in paragraph C. That was one way she earned money in those years.
Tips: The statement is about earning money from dogs. Find where animals come into her life, and check that she made money from them.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: In paragraph A, the writer says she earned money by teaching art to children, not by selling animals.
- B: Notice that paragraph B mentions her hope of selling paintings to the government, but no dogs.
- D: The fourth paragraph is about her book Klee Wyck and the later argument over her village pictures, not about animals.
- E: Paragraph C names the sheepdogs she bred and the roughly 350 she sold.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: He suggested that she turn from the villages to the landscape, and she then painted the dense forests of the coast.
Why this is correct: In paragraph C, the writer says that on her 1927 trip to Ottawa she met the painter Lawren Harris. He was the leader of the Group of Seven. He suggested that she turn from the villages to the landscape, and she then painted the coastal forests.
Tips: Find the painter she met in Ottawa. Then read what advice he gave her.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A names her art schools, but no painter who gave her advice about subjects.
- B: The second paragraph talks about villages and totem poles, which is tempting, but no one there tells her to change her subject.
- D: Look at paragraph D: it reports that critics later questioned how she used First Nations images. That is criticism, not advice from a painter.
- E: Lawren Harris, the painter she met on the Ottawa trip, gave her this advice in Paragraph C.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: Parks Canada still calls them a valuable record of those villages, but since the early 1990s some critics have felt that she knew little about First Nations art and took its images and stories for her own use.
Why this is correct: The fourth paragraph talks about what some critics have felt since the early 1990s. They say she knew little about First Nations art and took its images and stories for her own use. That is the same claim in other words.
Tips: First Nations subjects come up more than once. Look for where other people judge her work, not where she paints it.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Her training in San Francisco and London is the subject of paragraph A. It contains no criticism of her work.
- B: Notice that paragraph B describes her visits to First Nations villages, but it reports no one's criticism of those paintings.
- C: In paragraph C the National Gallery shows her work in 1927. That is support for her, not criticism.
- E: Look at paragraph D: it reports this criticism and says it began in the early 1990s.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: Her position changed in 1927, when Eric Brown, the director of the National Gallery of Canada, included her paintings in an exhibition in Ottawa.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph C says Eric Brown included her paintings in an Ottawa exhibition in 1927. It does not say how many of her pictures were shown, or compare her with the other artists.
Tips: Only Paragraph B gives a number of paintings, and it is about Vancouver. The Ottawa show has no count and no comparison.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Her early studies and illness make up the first paragraph. No show in Ottawa appears.
- B: Look at paragraph B: it mentions her 1912 show in Vancouver with more than 70 paintings. But that is a different show, and no other artists are compared.
- C: Paragraph C is the closest, because it describes the 1927 exhibition. But it gives no numbers and makes no comparison with other artists.
- D: The fourth paragraph covers her writing and the dispute about her village pictures. It does not mention the Ottawa show.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: She tried to persuade the provincial government to buy this collection, but she did not succeed.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph B. She tried to persuade the provincial government to buy her collection from the 1912 trip north, but she did not succeed. So the government did not buy it.
Tips: Find where someone is asked to buy her paintings of northern villages. Check who was asked, and whether they agreed.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: A shortage of family money comes up in paragraph A. But there is no attempt to sell paintings to a government.
- C: Paragraph C reports that the National Gallery of Canada put her work in an Ottawa exhibition. Nobody there refuses to buy anything.
- D: Look at paragraph D: it says Parks Canada values her village pictures as a record, but it describes no refused purchase.
- E: The second paragraph reports that she tried to persuade the provincial government to buy the collection and failed.
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