Q5

[JonnyL8]

Why is E wrong?

[ohthatpatrick]

Question Type:
Meaning in Context

Answer expected in lines/paragraph:
We know this is in lines 19-20, but we should read plus or minus a sentence or two. It seems like line 10-11 could be close to what the author means by "national black theater".

Any prephrase?
Something like "producing plays on African American subjects for primarily African American audiences", presumably on a national scale.

Correct answer:
B

Answer choice analysis:

(A) "publicy funded" seems to come from nowhere

(B) Sure, this sounds close to 10-11

(C) "federal government program"?

(D) "endorsed by scholars"?

(E) "black-owned playhouses"? This is too much of a trap answer, since it's what someone might pick if they were looking for a LITERAL synonym for "black theater".

Takeaway/Pattern: The context wasn't super strong in lines 19-20, but rewinding a bit got us to a prephrase. Any time they ask for the meaning incontext, we should beware answers that sound too much like the dictionary definition of what's in quotes.

#officialexplanation

[xingxingu229]

Hi Patrick, thx for your explanation!
But I still have some trouble understanding why A is not the answer...
Because the article says that the Negro Unit is a legacy of the program FTP which was established by the US government...So we can't call it '' publicly funded''?

[MariaC457]

I had the same thought when going over this question regarding support for the units being "publicly funded." The author does mention that the the FTP was established by the United State government. I'm not sure this gets us fully to the the theater being publicly funded, but either way I think there's another reason to eliminate choice A.

Choice A refers to a "performing arts center." This could be a singular center in one specific city. We know from the text (lines 13-14) that the units operated throughout the United States. This is better ascertained from the use of "broad-based" in choice B.

[HarryK838]

Doesn't the fact that they say they came closest to creating the theater imply that the requirements for creating the theater are just beyond what they actually accomplished. If a theater required diversity and that it be spread across the country, then they would have actually created a theater because they were diverse and spread across the country. So, the definition of a theater would have to be something beyond that. I choose E, because it seemed like something they came close to doing (by being present all across the country) without actually doing (there weren't black-owned theaters across the country).