Part 1. Definition
Write the right answer to the question based on the context passage.
Part 2. Example
Television drama's whole point is to bring you through an often slow start, followed by a complex development to a point where there are two or three potential denouements before, "Cut!", it is the end of the episode and you will have to await the "right answer" in the following week's show.
This post came to me at 10pm last night, on Day 16 of this challenge, after a day of holidaying in London and with my head (and feet) too weary to put finger to touchscreen.
Mrs Mc and I had just watched another live instalment of Broadchurch, murder mystery extraordinaire, particularly since in the second series there is no actual fresh murder to investigate. The verdict is about to be given on the accused killer from Series 1 when the inevitable happens... Cue title music.
This moment has even gained a moniker in British homes, based on the theme tune to the real masters of the four-times-a-week cliffhanger, London-based soap opera Eastenders. It's call a "ba...ba...ba...ba, ba, ba-ba-ba-ba" (YouTube will provide overseas readers with auditory explanation).
Eastenders is such a master of writing in the perfect pace that every 28 minute episode ends with a tantalising screen freeze on the latest shocked face / smirking baddy / confused victim. For really big stories the cliffhanger can last significantly longer. This week, to celebrate the show's 30 year birthday, we will finally find out the answer to a question unanswered for the past 14 months: "Who killed Lucy Beale?"
Now, most classrooms do not involve murder, incest, dodgy deals and danger, but "good teaching" encourages a type of pacing that totally ignores the ingredients that have millions in the edges of their seats every day: the good old cliffhanger. In fact, we see teachers giving away the punchline at the beginning: "Today we are learning this:...". Question: What was the soap opera admired by British people that the author says is a master of writing?
Answer: Eastenders
Explanation: The seventh sentence of the passage clearly states that Eastenders is master of writing. So, the answer is Eastenders.
Part 3. Exercise
Bryan C. Keene and Alexandra Kaczenski of the Getty Museum's Manuscripts Department have spent the last few years preparing for an exhibition and publication titled Sacred Landscapes: Nature in Renaissance Manuscripts that aims to examine representations of "green spaces" such as gardens, vistas, and their relation to the divine.
In particular, Bryan and Alexandra focus on the ways in which artists during the European Middle Ages and Renaissance embedded the pages of illuminated manuscripts with depictions of the natural world so that nature could guide prayer, chant, and meditation.
For Bryan, this project represents a continuation of his interest in sacred gardens that began with his graduate work on the garden imagery that influenced Botticelli's Agony in the Garden painting. In 2013 he curated the exhibition and authored the accompanying book Gardens of the Renaissance.
For Alexandra, interest in this subject stems from her scholarly focus on Flemish manuscripts and their relation to Flemish landscape paintings. She brought to the project a complementary interest in issues of environmental and landscape destruction, which also were themes of the exhibition and publication.
Though floral and nature studies of the Renaissance and Early Modern periods have been extensively investigatedthe scientific notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, for example, are well documentedthis exhibition turns its focus on landscape and the divine. Curatorial research has shed new light on subjects such as the seemingly "scattered" floral arrangements represented within the pages of these books and their relationship to humoral theory and religion. Bryan adds, "The tension that we find in these borders is, on the one hand, intricately rendered leaf and petal structures of plants or flowers, and on the other, hidden whimsical elements, all of which combine to create a rich tapestry of meaning, both symbolic and scientific. Alex and I will continue to explore the potential meaning within this botanical and arboreal chaos."
Sacred Landscapes opens on October 10, 2017, at the Getty Museum, where it complements the exhibition Giovanni Bellini: Landscapes of Faith in Renaissance Venice. The exhibition catalog is available online now. Question: Who spent the last few years preparing for an exhibition titled Sacred Landscapes?
Answer:
Bryan C. Keene and Alexandra Kaczenski