PrepTest 156, Section 3, Question 20
In typical accounts of the beginnings of bebop—the(447 more words not shown)
It can be inferred from(32 more words not shown)
- AThey continued to(16 more words not shown)
- BThey resented critics'(7 more words not shown)
- CThey recorded and(16 more words not shown)
- DThey believed they(15 more words not shown)
- EThey sought unsuccessfully(9 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Stay with the authors of the typical accounts, and now focus specifically on swing musicians. Their story says the industry encouraged musicians to keep going through the motions after they lacked a legitimate artistic reason to continue. In plain terms, the established style kept paying even after it had stopped offering those musicians much artistic interest.
What we’re looking for
That is the relationship to look for. We don't need to add resentment toward critics, loyalty to tradition, or a failed attempt to escape.
Working the answers
- A
The account doesn't tell us that musicians continued to regard their work as innovative. Its description of going through the motions points toward a different explanation for why they kept playing the style.
- B
No resentment of critics is described. We cannot infer that emotional reaction merely from the distinction between entertainment and artistic innovation.
- CCorrect
Continuing to record and perform a style that was no longer artistically compelling fits being induced to go through the motions without a legitimate artistic reason. This doesn't mean they had lost every artistic ambition. It concerns their continued work in that particular style despite the lack of artistic motivation for it.
- D
No sense of duty to preserve earlier traditions is given. Commercial inducement, rather than an obligation to safeguard the past, explains the continuation in this account.
- E
The story describes commercial pressures keeping swing musicians in the established pattern. It doesn't say they attempted, and failed, to free their music from those pressures. Being constrained doesn't establish an unsuccessful effort to escape.
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