Self-study
Many people who simply enjoy listening to popular music do not realize that Conclusion it has been used to express religious and political messages. █████ ████ ███████ █████ ███ ██████████ ████ ███████ ██ ██████ █████████ ██ ███████ █████ ███████████ █████ ██ ███ ███ █████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████████ ██ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████ ██ ████ ██ ██ █████ ███ ██████ ███ ██ ███████ ███ ██████████ ██ ███ ██████████ █████████████
Summarize Argument
The author concludes that popular music has been used to express religious and political messages. This is based on an example of popular music being used by social movements to convert people to the movement or to increase morale among the movements’ members.
Identify Conclusion
The conclusion is the author’s assertion concerning what popular music has been used for: “[I]t has been used to express religious and political messages.”
1.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ █████████ ███ ████ ██████████ ██ ███ █████████
a
Popular music accounts ███ ███ ███████ ██ ██████ ██████████
This says popular music explains the success of social movements. The conclusion makes no claim about why any movement succeeds. It just says popular music has been used to express religious and political messages. Whether the music actually helps a movement win is a separate question the author doesn't touch.
b
Popular music's entertainment █████ ███ ████ ███████████████
This conflates two different observations. The stimulus says many people who enjoy popular music for entertainment don't realize it has other uses, which is a claim about awareness. (B) makes a claim about emphasis, asserting that entertainment has been overemphasized. Those are different claims. The author argues popular music has uses beyond entertainment, not that entertainment as a use has been weighted too heavily.
c
Popular music is ███ ████ █████████ ███ ██ ██████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ██████████
The word most is the problem. The stimulus only says popular music has the potential to contribute to conversion. That is much weaker than calling it the most effective method of converting people. (C) overshoots the modest claim the author actually makes.
d
Popular music has ████████ █████ ████ ████ ██████████████
This paraphrases the conclusion at a more general level. The stimulus says popular music has been used for religious and political messages; (D) states this more generally as purposes other than mere entertainment. Religious and political messages count as purposes other than entertainment, so (D) captures the conclusion.
e
Popular music has █ ████████ █████████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████
Two problems. First, profound is too strong. The stimulus mentions morale and solidarity, but never states something that supports profound. Second, even if the stimulus did support a claim about profound emotional impact, that claim would be a premise, not the conclusion. Morale and solidarity are listed as reasons popular music gets adopted by movements, not as the thing the author is trying to prove.