PrepTest 104, Section 2, Question 6
The career of trumpeter Miles Davis was one(460 more words not shown)
Which one of the following,(18 more words not shown)
- AMany jazz musicians(11 more words not shown)
- BMany jazz musicians(17 more words not shown)
- CSeveral jazz musicians(13 more words not shown)
- DThe jazz innovators(15 more words not shown)
- EJazz critics are(13 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The explanation we're attacking is that critics resist Davis because he keeps changing. He won't stay in the niche they've assigned him.
What we’re looking for
What if those same critics admire other musicians who repeatedly change styles? That would give us a reason to question whether continuing innovation explains their hostility to Davis.
Working the answers
- A
Improvising during a performance isn't the same as changing styles across a career. The purists already value live improvisation, so this doesn't challenge the proposed explanation.
- BCorrect
These musicians make “several radical changes in style,” yet critics admire them. If critics welcome that pattern in other careers, blaming Davis's poor reception on the pattern becomes less convincing. This needn't prove the explanation impossible to weaken it.
- C
Playing exclusively on electronic instruments could mean staying with one style. The objection we're testing concerns Davis's repeated changes, not merely his choice of instrument.
- D
This fits the ending's contrast. A brief career can leave a more easily classified body of work than Davis's long, continually changing career. Admiring those musicians doesn't undermine that explanation; we needn't assume they never innovated.
- E
Nothing says Davis lacked musicality or offered only technical skill. Without that connection, this preference doesn't give us a different explanation for his reception.
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