Comparing designs in music with visual designs raises interesting ques

Question

Comparing designs in music with visual designs raises interesting questions. We are familiar with the easy transfers of terms denoting qualities from one field to another. The basic problem can be put this way: can music sound the way a design looks? The elements of music are not the same as those of painting. They may be analogous, but to be analogous is not to be identical. Is it possible, then, for the same broad characteristics to emerge from different perceptual conditions?

Two facts about the relation between broad characteristics of a work and their perceptual conditions must be kept distinct. First, the global characteristics of a visual or auditory complex are determined by the discernible parts and their relationships. Thus, any notable change in the parts or their relationships produces a change in some of the global characteristics. Second, a change in the parts or their relationships may leave other global characteristics unchanged.    1 
 1. In the first paragraph, the author is primarily concerned with establishing the fact that

(A) comparisons are not equations
(B) auditory phenomena are not visual phenomena
(C) frequently used comparisons are usually inaccurate
(D) careless perceptions result from careless thought
(E) questions concerning perception are psychological

2 
 2. In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with

(A) distinguishing mutually exclusive categories
(B) clarifying an apparent contradiction
(C) supporting new ideas
(D) analyzing a problem
(E) comparing opinions

3 
 3. The second paragraph is primarily concerned with establishing the idea that

(A) different global characteristics of a work result from the same discernible parts
(B) the parts of a work of art influence the total perception of the work
(C) visual and auditory characteristics can be combined
(D) changes in the parts of a work remain isolated from the work as a whole
(E) the visual complexes in a work of art influence the work’s auditory complexes

4 
 4. Which of the following statements is most likely be a continuation of the passage?

(A) The search for broad similarities thus begins by understanding and distinguishing these two facts.
(B) The search for musical-visual analogies thus depends on the complexity of the works being compared.
(C) The search for music and art of the highest quality thus depends on very different assumptions.
(D) Thus music and painting exist in mutually exclusive worlds.
(E) Thus music and painting are too complicated to be evaluated in terms of analogies.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

OE is not available. I am sharing just my view on the passage.

Explanation

1. In the first paragraph, the author is primarily concerned with establishing the fact that

Difficulty Level:   650

Explanation

Leading text from the passage:

They may be analogous, but to be analogous is not to be identical.

Answer: A

2. In the passage, the author is primarily concerned with

Difficulty Level:   700

Explanation

Leading text from the passage:

Comparing designs in music with visual designs raises interesting questions.

The basic problem can be put this way: can music sound the way a design looks?

Is it possible, then, for the same broad characteristics to emerge from different perceptual conditions?

(A) distinguishing  mutually exclusive  categories
Mutually exclusive is a broad term and we cannot say with the help of the passage that music and visual designs are mutually exclusive, although both have differences but mutually exclusive is extreme to say.

(B)  clarifying  an apparent contradiction
Nothing is clarified in the passage.

(C)  supporting  new ideas
Nothing is supported.

(D) analyzing a problem 
Correct

(E) comparing  opinions 
No comparison of opinions

Answer: D

3. The second paragraph is primarily concerned with establishing the idea that

Difficulty Level:   700

Explanation

Leading text from the passage:

Thus, any notable change in the parts or their relationships produces a change in some of the global characteristics.

Answer: B

4. Which of the following statements is most likely be a continuation of the passage?

Difficulty Level:   650

I got this question wrong and i think answer option A is a continuation of  paragraph 2 and not the passage  as a whole, I will not comment more on this.

kntombat · Answer

IanStewart  ,  AndrewN  ,  GMATNinja  , can anyone help us out with the question 3 and question 4 of this RC. 
There seems to be a lot of confusion regarding the same.

IanStewart · Answer

It's funny that you'd bring this question to my attention, because part of my doctoral thesis discussed a similar issue, how certain ideas from film analysis might be applied to music. But a lot of this passage seems nonsensical to me. For example, it uses the phrase "auditory complex" (presumably to give the passage a more academic tone) to refer to part of a piece of music. The "auditory complex" is the part of the brain that interprets sounds. It is not a phrase you can use to describe a piece of music, at least not without creating a lot of confusion among an audience familiar with the phrase. Nor is it clear to me what two "distinct" facts are presented in the second paragraph. The second paragraph just says "changing some details of a work will change some global features, but not others".

I think you could rephrase the entire passage this way, without losing much or any of the meaning: "Can a piece of music produce the same experience as a painting? Elements of music might be analogous to elements of painting, but that doesn't mean they're identical. // Changing some details of a work will change some global features, but not others" (and for some reason, we should think that this last sentence expresses two distinct facts, not one).

Since the opening paragraph is interested in analogies between music and painting, but stresses that analogous things are not identical, the answer to Q1 is A.

RC questions like Q2, with very vague answer choices, I usually approach by elimination unless one answer is obviously right. There are no 'new ideas', 'contradictions', different 'opinions', or 'mutually exclusive categories' (the whole point is that our experience of art and of music might overlap), but the vague phrase 'analyzing a problem' could well apply here, as it could to very many passages. So D is the answer.

For Q3, the second paragraph discusses how the details or parts of a work (whether music/sound or painting/design) relate to the 'global characteristics' of a work, so C and E are certainly wrong. The third sentence of the paragraph says precisely the opposite of what answer D says, so D is contradicted by the passage and cannot be right. Answer A says, paraphrasing, that the same parts of a work produce different global characteristics. There's nothing in the paragraph that discusses how many different characteristics are produced by a part of a work. Only B is a good answer here; the entire discussion, in the second paragraph, about how changing details affects some global characteristics but not others is discussing precisely how the parts affect the whole. Because the question is playing a game where it switches terminology from passage to answer choice (replacing one word with a synonym, to test if the reader understands they mean the same thing), it might be useful to bear in mind how the first paragraph implicitly defined some of the terms used here. We're asked "can music sound the way a design looks?", and the first paragraph goes on to equate that experience, of how music sounds or of how a design looks, with the "broad characteristics" of a work (it says essentially that if that question has the answer 'yes', that the two things would have "the same broad characteristics"). So the "total perception of the work" in answer B should be taken to be synonymous with "global characteristics of the work" or "broad characteristics of the work".

For Q4, we'd be following on from two paragraphs that express two ideas: the first paragraph asks how similar our experience of visual art and music can be, and the second says that two facts need to be distinguished. So answer A immediately seems like a very promising answer here, since it ties together, and continues on from, both of the main ideas expressed so far. I'd be confident answer A was right even before reading any other choices. Answer B repeats the word "complexity" to test if the reader has misunderstood the meaning of "complex" in the passage (which is used to mean "configuration", and not "complicatedness"). Nothing at all in the passage discusses the "quality" of art, so C would be a non sequitur. Answer D is contradicted by the previous text, which is exploring how our experience of music and of visual art might overlap. E again to me seems to be testing if the reader has misunderstood the meaning of "complex"; the passage doesn't say music and art are too complicated to analyze. Indeed, the passage seems to be setting up further analysis, by first identifying two facts that are important to build upon.

VerbalBot · Answer

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Comparing designs in music with visual designs raises interesting ques

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Comparing designs in music with visual designs raises interesting ques

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