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Task A · argumentative / socio-cultural ~30 minutes in the real exam
Art & Culture
Why we make things that serve no obvious purpose. A practice set in the authentic Section II format — a set of related statements on one theme; your job is an essay that finds an angle engaging several of them.
Consider the following statements
- The made thing can hold a truth the plain fact cannot — which is why we forgive art its inventions.
- A culture preserves itself not in its monuments but in what it chooses to retell.
- We call something beautiful when it makes us briefly forget ourselves.
- The purpose of art is not to depict the world but to make us feel less alone in it.
Write a response developing your own view on the theme, engaging with one or more of the statements. Give yourself 30 minutes, planning included.
How to approach a Task A set
- 1Take a position on the idea behind the set — not on one quote in isolation. The statements disagree with each other on purpose; the tension is your way in.
- 2Argue it with specifics you can actually analyse: an event, a policy, a pattern you can name — not vague appeals to “society today”.
- 3Engage at least one statement directly, including one you push back on. A thesis that survives an objection reads a band stronger than one that never meets it.
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