PrepTest 157, Section 4, Question 4
In 1959, Hitsville, USA—the company better known as(437 more words not shown)
Based on information in the(16 more words not shown)
- AGordy's own expertise(18 more words not shown)
- BThe great popularity(25 more words not shown)
- CThe revolution in(23 more words not shown)
- DGordy's unconventional ideas(20 more words not shown)
- EMotown songs would(17 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
We can draw a supported inference from a relationship the author actually gives us. Motown's independence allowed Gordy considerable freedom to reject industry convention. That points toward a modest comparison: being controlled by a major recording company would have made unconventional choices harder.
What we’re looking for
It doesn't tell us his technical background, how every competitor sounded, or what would have happened in an entirely different musical history.
Working the answers
- A
Gordy devoted resources to recording quality. That doesn't establish personal technical expertise. A business owner can hire skilled people and fund their work without performing those technical tasks himself.
- B
The author describes Motown's innovation, but never says other companies produced too little innovative music. Success through one's own strengths doesn't establish a shortage of strengths elsewhere.
- C
Helping bring about a change doesn't prove the change could never have happened without you. The musicians were “among the first” to use electric bass, and we aren't given the history of what everyone else might have done without Motown.
- DCorrect
The opening sentence of the second paragraph explicitly links independence with freedom to oppose convention. A subsidiary would lack that same independence, supporting the limited conclusion that Gordy's ideas would have been harder to implement. D doesn't claim implementation would have been impossible.
- E
We don't see alternate recordings of the same songs and their results. Gordy's belief that Motown's performers could appeal broadly doesn't establish equally strong popularity for different performers.
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