PrepTest 124, Section 3, Question 3
Although it is unwise to take a developmental(91 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- ASounds that were(9 more words not shown)
- BSounds that were(9 more words not shown)
- CIt is inappropriate(7 more words not shown)
- DIt is unwise(9 more words not shown)
- EOur understanding of(8 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Knowing more about music doesn't automatically make a later musician a better artist.
The author wants to keep those ideas separate. We shouldn't treat Beethoven as an automatic advance over Josquin, or Miles Davis as an automatic advance over Louis Armstrong. But we can still learn more about how music works.
The example shows what that learning looks like. Composers can learn to use sounds that earlier composers avoided. A sound considered dissonant can be incorporated into a phrase that works harmoniously. That is an increase in knowledge about how to compose with the sound, not proof that every later composition is superior.
What we’re looking for
We're asked for the main conclusion. Follow what the example supports: musical knowledge can grow over time. The opening caution limits that claim so we don't turn it into a ranking of artists. It doesn't erase the claim about learning, which the rest of the passage develops.
Working the answers
- A
This focuses on a detail about which sounds are used, rather than the broader point about understanding music. It also changes sounds earlier composers avoided into sounds that were never used. Avoidance doesn't require an absolute claim about every past composition.
- B
The passage concerns learning how to use a sound effectively in a composition, not a change in listeners' preferences. A dissonant sound could help create a consonant phrase without becoming more pleasing when heard on its own. B doesn't capture the explanation of growing musical knowledge.
- C
The author does warn against a developmental view, but then distinguishes that from a sense in which knowledge can increase. The sound example supports the latter claim. Stopping at the opening warning leaves out the positive point the argument goes on to explain.
- D
The author isn't forbidding every judgment that one composer is better than another. The caution is against treating later artists as advances over earlier ones simply as music moves through time. D broadens that caution, and it still misses the supported point about knowledge.
- ECorrect
Our understanding of music can improve over time. The author supports that claim by explaining that we now know how to use certain sounds effectively in ways earlier composers avoided. We can accept that growth in understanding without concluding that later artists are inherently better.
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