PrepTest 128, Section 3, Question 21
Musicologist: Ludwig van Beethoven began losing his hearing(50 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- AIt was more(12 more words not shown)
- BHad he not(15 more words not shown)
- CHad he not(12 more words not shown)
- DBeethoven's music became(7 more words not shown)
- EHad he not(14 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
Losing your hearing sounds like a serious obstacle for a composer. Beethoven began losing his at 30, and the loss continued gradually until it became complete late in his life. But the musicologist says that, in his case, the loss gave the later music an introspective quality the earlier work lacked.
My first reaction is that the loss had an artistic benefit. “Wonderfully introspective” does praise that particular quality. Still, praising one feature isn't the same as comparing the overall quality of the actual music with everything Beethoven might have composed without losing his hearing.
What we’re looking for
For the most-strongly-supported question, I'd make a more modest prediction: the hearing loss helped shape the later music, so without it the music probably would have been different. That follows the claimed influence without deciding every question about whether the alternate music would have been better or worse.
Working the answers
- A
An effect on musical character doesn't establish an effect on how difficult composing was. The passage doesn't compare the effort required for the earlier and later works. We shouldn't supply that comparison merely because hearing loss sounds challenging.
- B
This is stronger than the praise of the introspective quality. The musicologist likes that feature, but we don't know the overall quality of the music Beethoven would otherwise have produced. It could have had other strengths, or he might have developed a similar feature through another influence. The passage supports a likely difference more strongly than a definite decline in overall quality.
- C
The quality belongs to Beethoven's music, not necessarily to Beethoven's personality. His music could express more introspection without establishing that he himself became a more introspective person. C shifts the subject of the claim.
- D
The hearing loss was gradual. We aren't told that the change in the music's introspective quality followed the same gradual pattern. Perhaps that quality emerged only in a particular late period. D transfers the timing of one change to a different change without support.
- ECorrect
The musicologist credits hearing loss with giving the later music a quality it previously lacked. That supports the restrained prediction that the later music probably would have been different without the loss. “Probably” leaves room for possibilities the passage doesn't rule out, and “different” avoids an unsupported judgment about the overall quality of the alternative music.
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