PrepTest 150 - Section 4 - Passage 1 - Question 4

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This passage was adapted from an article published in 2003.

Intro to Topic · Wynton Marsalis, important jazz musician

Great musician and promoter of jazz.

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Phenomenon · Marsalis and jazz face uncertain future

Critics are unhappy with "neotraditionalism." Not sure what that means but passage will probably explain later.

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Phenomenon Details · Marsalis and jazz's decline

Marsalis stopped releasing CDs; no active contract with record companies; Columbia Records no longer investing in jazz musicians.

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Critics Hypothesis · Marsalis' neotraditionalism is to blame for decline

Marsalis was looking backwards to jazz orthodoxy and inhibited innovation which resulted in stagnation. This is what was meant by "neotraditionalism."

Author’s Concession · Marsalis did emphasize past masters

Author’s Rebuttal · But Marsalis recombined traditional elements to push jazz forward

So it wasn't just neotraditionalism, as the critics claim.

Author's Hypothesis · Record labels are to blame

If past artists are so great, then just repackage their music and stop investing so much money in new talent.

Author’s Hypothesis · Record labels' profit motives are to blame

Marsalis and young talent saw past masters as role models. Critics thought they were idolizing past master. Record labels saw past masters as profit.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Phenomenon-hypothesis (RC)

Which one of the following █████████ █ █████████ ████ █████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██████ █████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███ ████████

Question Type

Analogy (RC)

The author describes the “situation” facing Marsalis in P4. Marsalis put great emphasis on past jazz masters. He tried to bring traditional elements into new music. But record companies took that focus on tradition to an extreme and started to release mainly the old music. They started to neglect the development of newer music. Let’s look for an answer that involves an attempt to bring elements of something old to something new, but the old elements end up dominating at the expense of the new, perhaps due to another person or group’s involvement.

A town council's ██████████ ████ ██ ████ ███ ████ ██ ███████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████████ █████ █████ ███ ███ ██████████ ███████████ ██ ███████ ███████ ██████ ██ ████ █████████████ ██████ ████ ██ ███████████ ██████

(A) involves the idea of intended consequences, which are relevant to Marsalis’s situation. But it doesn’t involve the idea of combining elements of something old and new, or the idea of the old thing dominating at the expense of the new.

A well-known seed ████████ ████ ████████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████ ████ █████ ███████████ ██████████ ███ ██ █ ███████ █████ ██ ███████████ █████████ █████████ █████ ██████ █████ ████████

This is the most analogous. The seed research firm tries to bring the old to something new (hybrid tomatoes that taste like older varieties), just as Marsalis did (traditional elements into new jazz music). But, unexpectedly, the older tomatoes end up dominating at the expense of the hybrid, just as older jazz ended up being more profitable than newer jazz.

76%

A producer of ████ ███████ █████ ████ ████████ ███ █████████ █████████████ █████ ████████████████ █████████ ████ █████ █████████ ███████ ████ ████ █████████ ████ ████ ██████████ ████ ████ ███████

This doesn’t involve the idea of combining elements of something old and new, or the idea of the old thing dominating at the expense of the new.

A firm that ███ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ██████ █████████ ███ ███████ ███████ █████ ████ █████ ███ ████████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ███████████ ████ ███████ ██████ ████████ ██████████

This doesn’t involve the idea of combining elements of something old and new, or the idea of the old thing dominating at the expense of the new.

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(E) involves the idea of intended consequences, which are relevant to Marsalis’s situation. But it doesn’t involve the idea of combining elements of something old and new, or the idea of the old thing dominating at the expense of the new.

10%

PrepTest 150 - Section 4 - Passage 1 - Question 4

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