PrepTest 130, Section 2, Question 24

Working the answers

• A
  Correct

  This is broader and better than our initial familiarity-only prediction. B's central relationship is between the listener's expectations and the emotions that result when the music meets, delays, or sharply violates them. Familiarity helps explain those responses, but familiarity and expectations aren't simply two words for the same thing.

• B

  The final sentence compares trained and naive listeners' preferences. It doesn't say trained listeners consciously manipulate their emotions. Even the real training comparison is a detail, not the overall point.

• C

  This is supported, but only covers the negative side: an extreme mismatch produces negative emotion. It leaves out satisfied expectations, the buildup and resolution of tension, and positive responses.

• D

  The focus isn't a recommendation to learn musical appreciation. B explains how musical emotions work rather than presenting learning to appreciate complexity as its main claim.

• E

  B does connect resolution of tension with relaxation, so those ideas aren't absent. But relaxation is one part of the account. E narrows the main point to relaxing music and presents a usual pattern for that music, rather than the broader relationship between expectations and different emotional responses.