Self-study
Music historian: In the past, radio stations would not play rock songs that were more than three minutes in length. ████ █████████ ███████ ████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███████ █████ ███████████ ███ ████ ███████ █████ ████ ████ █████ █████ ████████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██████ █████████ ██ █████ ████████ ████ █████ ████████ ████ ███████ ███ █████████ ███ ████ ██████████ █████ ████ ███ ███ █████ ██████ ████████ ███████ ███ ██████ ████ █████ ████ ███████ ████ ███ ████ ██████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ███████
Summary
Historically, radio stations did not play rock songs longer than three minutes. Rock musicians argued that this time constraint limited their creativity. Some critics also claim that rock music has become artistic only after this constraint was lifted. However, the music historian says that lifting the constraint resulted in poor song structures and aimless music. This is because the styles that are the basis of rock music are better-suited for shorter songs.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
In some cases, music can benefit from external constraints rather than be harmed by them.
14.
Which one of the following ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ █████ ███████████ ███████
a
Rock music is ███ █ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ █████████ ███ ████ █ █████ ████ ██████
This answer is unsupported. To say that rock music is not a good outlet for creativity is too extreme. We also don't know how the number of ideas a musician has is related to musical genre.
b
Rock music must ██████ ████ ██████ ████ █████████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ██ ██ ██ ██████ █████████
This answer is unsupported. First, the historian never suggests that rock music should change in order to become more artistic. Second, we don’t even know if there are any styles better-suited for longer songs.
c
Rock music requires ████ ██████████ ████ ████ █████ █████ ██ ██████
This answer is unsupported. We are not told anything about discipline, nor about other forms of music in order to make this comparison.
d
Rock music can █████████ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██████ ████ █████ ██████ ██ █████
This answer is strongly supported. It's a more specific phrasing of the general idea that constraints can benefit music. The historian says that removing barriers made rock music worse, so inversely, the presence of the barriers benefited rock music.
e
Rock music is ████ ████ ██ ██ ████ ██ █████████ ███ ██ ███ █████ ██ ██████████ ██ █████ ██████████████ ████████
This answer is unsupported. We don’t know anything about artists' self-consciousness, nor about under what circumstances rock music is best.