Aida Overton Walker (1880–1914), one of the most widely acclaimed African American performers of the early twentieth century, was known largely for popularizing a dance form known as the cakewalk through her choreographing, performance, and teaching of the dance. ███
Intro topic ·How Walker popularized the cakewalk dance
Final example ·of how Walker appealed to a third audience
Walker's version of the cakewalk had certain elements ("grand flourishes") that appealed to newly rich audiences
Passage Style
Single position
Spotlight
14.
The author describes the socioeconomic ████ ██ ███ ███████████████████ ██████ ██████ ██ ███ █████ █████████ █████████ ██ █████ ██
Question Type
Purpose in context (of word, phrase, or idea)
Structure
The description of socioeconomic flux comes right after the claim that the cakewalk’s multicultural origins are the reason it was so successful. When the author then describes the socioeconomic flux underway at the time, he’s supporting his previous claim by explaining why the cakewalk’s cultural complexity made it successful: art needed to be “many things to many people.” So the purpose of describing the socioeconomic flux of the time is to explain how those conditions were a good fit for the cakewalk and helped the dance become popular.
a
argue that the ████████ █████ ████ ██████ ███████ ████ ██ ████ ███████ ██████ █████████████
The complex social circumstances of socioeconomic flux created the conditions for the cakewalk’s success, but the author doesn’t suggest that those conditions were necessary for the cakewalk’s success.
b
detail the social ███████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██ ████ ███████ ███ ████████ █████ █████
This refers to a different social context—one discussed earlier, in P1 and P2, and which took place earlier in time, starting before the Civil War and ending in the late 19th century. The social context we’re interested in, meanwhile, occurred at the turn of the 20th century.
The targets of the cakewalk’s parodic elements are identified earlier, in P2: African Americans used the dance to parody European Americans, and European Americans in turn used the dance to parody African Americans. Meanwhile, the socioeconomic flux described in P3 is brought up to explain not who was being parodied, but why those layers of parody helped the dance gain wide appeal; it was a time of diverse audiences with diverse tastes.
The author brings up socioeconomic flux in order to argue that it was a time of diverse audiences with diverse tastes, and that a culturally complex dance like the cakewalk was well-suited for such an environment.
The author doesn’t indicate whether European American parodies reached wide audiences. All we know about European American parodies is that they formed part of the overall development of the cakewalk.
Difficulty
70% of people who answer get this correct
This is a moderately difficult question.
It is similar in difficulty to other questions in this passage.
CURVE
Score of students with a 50% chance of getting this right
25%132
149
75%166
Analysis
Purpose in context (of word, phrase, or idea)
Structure
Art
Single position
Spotlight
Answer Popularity
PopularityAvg. score
a
3%
158
b
12%
160
c
8%
160
d
70%
164
e
7%
158
Question history
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