PrepTest 110, Section 1, Question 7
The term "blues" is conventionally used to refer(447 more words not shown)
Based on the passage, with(14 more words not shown)
- AThe emphasis on(19 more words not shown)
- BLittle of the(15 more words not shown)
- COther forms of(17 more words not shown)
- DThe distinctive musical(15 more words not shown)
- EThe blues may(7 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
My first thought is that the answer might restate the similarity between blues and spirituals. But an agreement question could draw on a smaller point. We know the music does more than express sadness and that its transformative effect may have cultural roots. Let's see what the choices actually ask us to infer.
Working the answers
- A
A response analogous to a religious experience doesn't make the blues organized religion. Secular spiritual highlights a similarity across that distinction; it doesn't erase it.
- B
Modern electronically amplified forms aren't discussed. We have no account of how much of this effect they retain.
- C
The writer discusses irony in blues lyrics, not heavy reliance on the same technique throughout other African American folk art. Shared cultural roots don't establish that broader claim.
- D
The tension between sadness and transcendence is discussed, but its primary cause isn't identified as musical structure. D adds a particular mechanism and calls it the main one. Neither addition is supported.
- ECorrect
I initially hesitate: a psychological experience isn't automatically beneficial. But the text gives us more than the word ecstasy. Both genres aim at “elation and exaltation,” and blues songs “serve to transcend negative experiences.” Turning painful experiences into something uplifting supports the limited conclusion that listeners may benefit.
We don't need to show that every listener benefits or that blues is a proven treatment. May fits the modest positive inference the description supports.
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