PrepTest 136, Section 1, Question 21
Music and literature, rivals among the arts, have(444 more words not shown)
It can be inferred from(16 more words not shown)
- AIn Jazz ,(23 more words not shown)
- BBecause of its(26 more words not shown)
- CIn Jazz ,(33 more words not shown)
- DThe structural analogy(20 more words not shown)
- EMorrison disguises the(22 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The author's comparison has several connected parts. The narration moves among voices, individual characters express themselves, and the narrator maintains an overall framework. Ellington likewise gives musicians room to improvise while retaining the structure of his composition.
What we’re looking for
Use those actual claims to test the inferences. Enthusiastic praise doesn't automatically support a claim that Morrison perfected something, surpassed everyone else, or intended to hide her technique.
Working the answers
- A
We aren't given a history of earlier writers unsuccessfully attempting this narrative style, or a claim that Morrison perfected it. Notice that the statement about perfecting an art of composition concerns Ellington, not Morrison completing those other writers' project.
- B
The praise concerns narrative technique. It doesn't rank novels for their portrayal of the environment in which jazz musicians live and work. Most successful adds a comparison the author hasn't made.
- C
Individual voices appearing within one narration doesn't mean they are hard to distinguish. The analogy actually preserves individuality: the characters' voices correspond to distinctive solos within a group performance.
- DCorrect
The analogy is about more than changes in point of view. Quotation marks mark out the characters' contributions while the narrator controls the whole, just as Ellington's framework contains his players' improvisations. The larger relationship between individual expression and overall structure supports D.
- E
Smooth transitions don't establish an attempt to disguise the connection to Ellington. The author describes a successful literary analogy, not a strategy for concealing it.
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