Test Prep MCAT Test Exam (page: 31)
Test Prep Medical College Admission Test: Verbal Reasoning, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Writing Sample
Updated on: 15-Dec-2025

When Gwendolyn Brooks published her first collection of poetry A Street In Bronzeville in 1945 most reviewers recognized Brooks' versatility and craft as a poet. Yet, while noting her stylistic successes few of her contemporaries discussed the critical question of Brooks' relationship to the Harlem Renaissance. How had she addressed herself, as a poet, to the literary movement's assertion of the folk and African culture, and its promotion of the arts as the agent to define racial integrity?

The New Negro poets of the Harlem Renaissance expressed a deep pride in being Black; they found reasons for this pride in ethnic identity and heritage; and they shared a common faith in the fine arts as a means of defining and reinforcing racial pride. But in the literal expression of this impulse, the poets were either romantics, or realists and, quite often within the same poem, both. The realistic impulse, as defined best in the poems of McKay's Harlem Shadows (1922), was a sober reflection upon Blacks as second class citizens, segregated from the mainstream of American socio-economic life, and largely unable to realize the wealth and opportunity that America promised. The romantic impulse, on the other hand, as defined in the poems of Sterling Brown's Southern Road (1932), often found these unrealized dreams in the collective strength and will of the folk masses.
In comparing the poems in A Street in Bronzeville with various poems from the Renaissance, it becomes apparent that Brooks brings many unique contributions to bear on this tradition. The first clue that A Street In Bronzeville was, at its time of publication, unlike any other book of poems by a Black American is its insistent emphasis on demystifying romantic love between Black men and women. During the Renaissance, ethnic or racial pride was often focused with romantic idealization upon the Black woman. A casual streetwalker in Hughes' poem, "When Sue Wears Red," for example, is magically transformed into an Egyptian Queen. In A Street In Bronzeville, this romantic impulse runs headlong into the biting ironies of racial discrimination. There are poems in which Hughes, McKay and Brown recognize the realistic underside of urban life for Black women. But for Brooks, unlike the Renaissance poets, the victimization of poor Black women becomes not simply a minor chord but a predominant theme.
...Brooks' relationship with the Harlem Renaissance poets, as A Street in Bronzeville ably demonstrates, was hardly imitative. As one of the important links with the Black poetic tradition of the 1920s and 1930s, she enlarged the element of realism that was an important part of the Renaissance world-view. Although her poetry is often conditioned by the optimism that was also a legacy of the period, Brooks rejects outright their romantic prescriptions for the lives of Black women. And in this regard, she serves as a vital link with the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s that, while it witnessed the flowering of Black women as poets and social activists as well as the rise of Black feminist aesthetics in the 1970s, brought about a curious revival of romanticism in the Renaissance mode.
With which one of the following statements about A Street in Bronzeville would the author most likely agree?

When Gwendolyn Brooks published her first collection of poetry A Street In Bronzeville in 1945 most reviewers recognized Brooks' versatility and craft as a poet. Yet, while noting her stylistic successes few of her contemporaries discussed the critical question of Brooks' relationship to the Harlem Renaissance. How had she addressed herself, as a poet, to the literary movement's assertion of the folk and African culture, and its promotion of the arts as the agent to define racial integrity?

The New Negro poets of the Harlem Renaissance expressed a deep pride in being Black; they found reasons for this pride in ethnic identity and heritage; and they shared a common faith in the fine arts as a means of defining and reinforcing racial pride. But in the literal expression of this impulse, the poets were either romantics, or realists and, quite often within the same poem, both. The realistic impulse, as defined best in the poems of McKay's Harlem Shadows (1922), was a sober reflection upon Blacks as second class citizens, segregated from the mainstream of American socio-economic life, and largely unable to realize the wealth and opportunity that America promised. The romantic impulse, on the other hand, as defined in the poems of Sterling Brown's Southern Road (1932), often found these unrealized dreams in the collective strength and will of the folk masses.
In comparing the poems in A Street in Bronzeville with various poems from the Renaissance, it becomes apparent that Brooks brings many unique contributions to bear on this tradition. The first clue that A Street In Bronzeville was, at its time of publication, unlike any other book of poems by a Black American is its insistent emphasis on demystifying romantic love between Black men and women. During the Renaissance, ethnic or racial pride was often focused with romantic idealization upon the Black woman. A casual streetwalker in Hughes' poem, "When Sue Wears Red," for example, is magically transformed into an Egyptian Queen. In A Street In Bronzeville, this romantic impulse runs headlong into the biting ironies of racial discrimination. There are poems in which Hughes, McKay and Brown recognize the realistic underside of urban life for Black women. But for Brooks, unlike the Renaissance poets, the victimization of poor Black women becomes not simply a minor chord but a predominant theme.
...Brooks' relationship with the Harlem Renaissance poets, as A Street in Bronzeville ably demonstrates, was hardly imitative. As one of the important links with the Black poetic tradition of the 1920s and 1930s, she enlarged the element of realism that was an important part of the Renaissance world-view. Although her poetry is often conditioned by the optimism that was also a legacy of the period, Brooks rejects outright their romantic prescriptions for the lives of Black women. And in this regard, she serves as a vital link with the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s that, while it witnessed the flowering of Black women as poets and social activists as well as the rise of Black feminist aesthetics in the 1970s, brought about a curious revival of romanticism in the Renaissance mode.
According to the passage, critics praised the quality of Brooks' first collection of poetry but:

When Gwendolyn Brooks published her first collection of poetry A Street In Bronzeville in 1945 most reviewers recognized Brooks' versatility and craft as a poet. Yet, while noting her stylistic successes few of her contemporaries discussed the critical question of Brooks' relationship to the Harlem Renaissance. How had she addressed herself, as a poet, to the literary movement's assertion of the folk and African culture, and its promotion of the arts as the agent to define racial integrity?

The New Negro poets of the Harlem Renaissance expressed a deep pride in being Black; they found reasons for this pride in ethnic identity and heritage; and they shared a common faith in the fine arts as a means of defining and reinforcing racial pride. But in the literal expression of this impulse, the poets were either romantics, or realists and, quite often within the same poem, both. The realistic impulse, as defined best in the poems of McKay's Harlem Shadows (1922), was a sober reflection upon Blacks as second class citizens, segregated from the mainstream of American socio-economic life, and largely unable to realize the wealth and opportunity that America promised. The romantic impulse, on the other hand, as defined in the poems of Sterling Brown's Southern Road (1932), often found these unrealized dreams in the collective strength and will of the folk masses.
In comparing the poems in A Street in Bronzeville with various poems from the Renaissance, it becomes apparent that Brooks brings many unique contributions to bear on this tradition. The first clue that A Street In Bronzeville was, at its time of publication, unlike any other book of poems by a Black American is its insistent emphasis on demystifying romantic love between Black men and women. During the Renaissance, ethnic or racial pride was often focused with romantic idealization upon the Black woman. A casual streetwalker in Hughes' poem, "When Sue Wears Red," for example, is magically transformed into an Egyptian Queen. In A Street In Bronzeville, this romantic impulse runs headlong into the biting ironies of racial discrimination. There are poems in which Hughes, McKay and Brown recognize the realistic underside of urban life for Black women. But for Brooks, unlike the Renaissance poets, the victimization of poor Black women becomes not simply a minor chord but a predominant theme.
...Brooks' relationship with the Harlem Renaissance poets, as A Street in Bronzeville ably demonstrates, was hardly imitative. As one of the important links with the Black poetic tradition of the 1920s and 1930s, she enlarged the element of realism that was an important part of the Renaissance world-view. Although her poetry is often conditioned by the optimism that was also a legacy of the period, Brooks rejects outright their romantic prescriptions for the lives of Black women. And in this regard, she serves as a vital link with the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s that, while it witnessed the flowering of Black women as poets and social activists as well as the rise of Black feminist aesthetics in the 1970s, brought about a curious revival of romanticism in the Renaissance mode.
Which of the following would best complete the last paragraph of the passage?

When Gwendolyn Brooks published her first collection of poetry A Street In Bronzeville in 1945 most reviewers recognized Brooks' versatility and craft as a poet. Yet, while noting her stylistic successes few of her contemporaries discussed the critical question of Brooks' relationship to the Harlem Renaissance. How had she addressed herself, as a poet, to the literary movement's assertion of the folk and African culture, and its promotion of the arts as the agent to define racial integrity?
The New Negro poets of the Harlem Renaissance expressed a deep pride in being Black; they found reasons for this pride in ethnic identity and heritage; and they shared a common faith in the fine arts as a means of defining and reinforcing racial pride. But in the literal expression of this impulse, the poets were either romantics, or realists and, quite often within the same poem, both. The realistic impulse, as defined best in the poems of McKay's Harlem Shadows (1922), was a sober reflection upon Blacks as second class citizens, segregated from the mainstream of American socio-economic life, and largely unable to realize the wealth and opportunity that America promised. The romantic impulse, on the other hand, as defined in the poems of Sterling Brown's Southern Road (1932), often found these unrealized dreams in the collective strength and will of the folk masses.
In comparing the poems in A Street in Bronzeville with various poems from the Renaissance, it becomes apparent that Brooks brings many unique contributions to bear on this tradition. The first clue that A Street In Bronzeville was, at its time of publication, unlike any other book of poems by a Black American is its insistent emphasis on demystifying romantic love between Black men and women. During the Renaissance, ethnic or racial pride was often focused with romantic idealization upon the Black woman. A casual streetwalker in Hughes' poem, "When Sue Wears Red," for example, is magically transformed into an Egyptian Queen. In A Street In Bronzeville, this romantic impulse runs headlong into the biting ironies of racial discrimination. There are poems in which Hughes, McKay and Brown recognize the realistic underside of urban life for Black women. But for Brooks, unlike the Renaissance poets, the victimization of poor Black women becomes not simply a minor chord but a predominant theme.
...Brooks' relationship with the Harlem Renaissance poets, as A Street in Bronzeville ably demonstrates, was hardly imitative. As one of the important links with the Black poetic tradition of the 1920s and 1930s, she enlarged the element of realism that was an important part of the Renaissance world-view. Although her poetry is often conditioned by the optimism that was also a legacy of the period, Brooks rejects outright their romantic prescriptions for the lives of Black women. And in this regard, she serves as a vital link with the Black Arts Movement of the 1960s that, while it witnessed the flowering of Black women as poets and social activists as well as the rise of Black feminist aesthetics in the 1970s, brought about a curious revival of romanticism in the Renaissance mode.
Suppose that a recently-discovered collection of Gwendolyn Brooks' poems contained female protagonists that embodied the ideal woman. This information would:

...Until last year many people ­ but not most economists ­ thought that the economic data told a simple tale. On one side, productivity ­ the average output of an average worker ­ was rising. And although the rate of productivity increase was very slow during the 1970's and early 1980's, the official numbers said that it had accelerated significantly in the 1990's. By 1994 an average worker was producing about 20 percent more than his or her counterpart in 1978.
On the other hand, other statistics said that real, inflation- adjusted wages had not been rising at anything like the same rate. In fact, some of the most commonly cited numbers showed real wages actually falling over the last 25 years. Those who did their homework knew that the gloomiest numbers overstated the case...Still, even the most optimistic measure, the total hourly compensation of the average worker, rose only 3 percent between 1978 and 1994...
...But now the experts are telling us that the whole thing may have been a figment of our statistical imaginations... a blue-ribbon panel of economists headed by Michael Boskin of Stanford declared that the Consumer Price Index [C.P.I.] had been systematically overstating inflation, probably by more than 1 percent per year for the last two decades, mainly failing to take account of changes in the patterns of consumption and improvements in product quality...
...The Boskin report, in particular, is not an official document ­ it will be quite a while before the Government actually issues a revised C.P.I., and the eventual revision may be smaller than Boskin and his colleagues propose. Still, the general outline of the resolution is pretty clear. When all the revisions are taken into account, productivity growth will probably look somewhat higher than it did before, because some of the revisions being proposed to the way we measure consumer prices will also affect the way we calculate growth. But the rate of growth of real wages will look much higher ­ and so it will now be roughly in line with productivity, which will therefore reconcile numbers on productivity and wages with data that show a roughly unchanged distribution of income between capital and labor. In other words, the whole story about workers not sharing in productivity gains will turn out to have been based on a statistical illusion.
It is important not to go overboard on this point. There are real problems in America, and our previous concerns were by no means pure hypochondriA. For one thing, it remains true that the rate of economic progress over the past 25 years has been much slower than it was in the previous 25. Even if Boskin's numbers are right, the income of the median family ­ which officially has experienced virtually no gain since 1973 ­ has risen by only about 35 percent over the past 25 years, compared with 100 percent over the previous 25. Furthermore, it is quite likely that if we "Boskinized" the old data ­ that is, if we tried to adjust the C.P.I). for the 50's and 60's to take account of changing consumption patterns and rising product quality ­ we would find that official numbers understated the rate of progress just as much if not more than they did in recent decades...
...Moreover, while workers as a group have shared fully in national productivity gains, they have not done so equally. The overwhelming evidence of a huge increase in income inequality in America has nothing to do with price indexes and is therefore unaffected by recent statistical revelations. It is still true that families in the bottom fifth, who had 5.4 percent of total income in 1970, had only 4.2 percent in 1994; and that over the same period the share of the top 5 percent went from 15.6 to 20.1. And it is still true that corporate C.E.O.'s, who used to make about 35 times as much as their employees, now make 120 times as much or more...
...While these are real and serious problems, however, one thing is now clear: the truth about what is happening in America is more subtle than the simplistic morality play about greedy capitalists and oppressed workers that so many would-be sophisticates accepted only a few months ago. There was little excuse for buying into that simplistic view then; there is no excuse now...
Which of the following can be inferred as the best description of the Boskin report?