Answers and Explanations OE
1)
What is the author‘s primary purpose in the passage? An easy one: the author wants to discuss the social functions of music. (D) fits the bill.
(A): Faulty Use of Detail. The author does this as a side-note to describing popular music‘s function of organizing time, but it‘s only a detail.
(B): Out of Scope. There are no theories other than the author‘s own in the passage.
(C): Out of Scope. The author discusses other forms of popular culture, like sports, but only as a way of further describing the functions of music.
(D): The correct answer
(E): Origination of pop music is not the concern of the passage
2)
Where is classical music mentioned in the passage? It isn‘t! How could we figure out anything about classical music, then? Predict: by relating it to music in general. The author notes in ¶5 that ―one of the effects of all music, not just pop, is to focus our attention on the feeling of time, and intensify our experience of the present.‖ Therefore, both pop music and classical music must focus attention on time, since this is a general quality of music. (C) says the same.
(A): Faulty Use of Detail. This is a social function of pop music, but the author doesn‘t suggest that it‘s a function of music in general.
(B): Faulty Use of Detail. The author uses this phrasing in describing ―popular love songs‖ but again gives no indication that it‘s a function of music in general.
(C): The correct answer
(D): Faulty Use of Detail. The author argues in ¶5 that pop music defines what youth is, but doesn‘t argue a similar function for music in general.
(E): The author does not say this for both types of music.
Strategy Point: Don’t panic when a question throws a curve ball in the form of an unfamiliar situation or terminology that’s not in the passage. If it’s in a question, it can be related back to the passage; you just need to figure out how.
3)
A question about the author's tone, scan the answer choices and note that only (C) is positive. Is the author's tone positive? Go back to ¶4 to review: the author says that the love songs "give shape and voice to emotions that otherwise cannot be expressed without embarrassment or incoherence.‖ The author also notes that the songs express feeling ―for us in interesting and involving ways.‖ The author is positive, and therefore (C) is correct.
(A): Opposite. The author argues that love songs are the antidote to banal language by expressing the same ideas in interesting ways.
(B): Opposite. The author argues that our own expressions of feeling can be emotionally incoherent and that love songs help to compensate for this.
(C): The correct answer
(D): Opposite. The author clearly believes that popular love songs have an important social function: the management of feelings.
(E): The author is not disgusted by anything. Note: Noting the author's tone (positive, negative, or neutral) helps narrow down answer choices with a quick vertical scan.
4)
What does the author do in the last paragraph? Predict from your map: The author describes the third function of popular music, the organization of time, and its relevance to the definition of youth. (B) captures the author‘s focus on youth.
(A): Distortion. The author briefly discusses the experience of youth, but only in the context of how youth relates to popular music, which this choice leaves out entirely.
(B): The correct answer
(C): Out of Scope. This choice tries to capitalize on words familiar from the passage: ―organization‖ and ―youth.‖ Time is organized, and youth is defined through popular music, but nothing at all is said about the organization of youth movements.
(D): Faulty Use of Detail. Though the author does discuss the relationship between music and time, it‘s done so particularly in the context of how it relates to youth, a topic that this choice completely omits.
(E): The passage never discusses the ‗decline‘ of pop music
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