PrepTest 150, Section 4, Question 6
This passage was adapted from an article published(462 more words not shown)
The author would be most(9 more words not shown)
- AIronically, record companies(17 more words not shown)
- BContrary to what(7 more words not shown)
- CUnderstandably, Marsalis's fellow(15 more words not shown)
- DSurprisingly, most of(13 more words not shown)
- EIn saturating the(16 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Put the author's defense beside the companies' behavior. Marsalis never advocated mere revivalism: his music reinvents traditional elements. The companies, however, increasingly concentrate on old recordings, and one label essentially gives up developing new artists.
What we’re looking for
That creates an irony. Marsalis gets accused of trapping jazz in the past, while the business response to his message moves further toward precisely that result. We need an inference built from those two pieces, not a new claim about who protested loudest.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
The record companies take the emphasis on the past in a rigid commercial direction: repackage the old work instead of cultivating new performers. The critics portray Marsalis as inhibiting innovation, yet his compositions retain it. The companies' withdrawal from developing new talent supports the comparison in A.
- B
Inspiring young musicians through past masters does not establish that Marsalis energetically promoted new artists. The author describes the influence of his example and advocacy, not this additional promotional activity.
- C
Critics and fellow musicians both criticize him, but we have no comparison showing which group was more vocal. Listing both groups doesn't rank them.
- D
Young musicians saw role models in the past masters. We aren't told that most young artists reject the critics' views of Marsalis. Their response to earlier musicians isn't a survey of their opinion about him.
- E
The fifteen releases are mentioned, but the author does not say they saturated the market or made him especially vulnerable to criticism. We cannot turn their proximity to a discussion of criticism into that causal explanation.
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