Reading comp PrepTest 123 · Section 4 · Question 11

Passage

The two passages discuss recent scientific research on music. They are adapted from two different papers presented at a scholarly Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage SummaryTopic: Science

Passage A

Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • A question, and similarities
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Question - Did language and music originate separately or together?
    • Similarities between language and music

Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • Studies on similarities; a key difference
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Brain studies - Music and language part of same system; more similar than different
    • Analogy - Two programs on same radio
    • Difference - People are better at language than music

Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • Answer to question
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Answer - Evolved together as brain size increased
    • Answer - Language primary over music; language evolved, music followed it

Passage B

Paragraph 1
  • Paragraph note
    • An expert view; the Author's view
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Darwin - Music is not practical and is mysterious
    • Combo = lyric narrative
    • Author - Music helps moms and kids bond, so it's evolutionarily useful

Paragraph 2
  • Paragraph note
    • Studies of music forming bonds
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Lullabies excluded
    • Studies - Recording parents and kids show they mimic each other with motions and singing

Paragraph 3
  • Paragraph note
    • A question and answer (causal chain)
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Question - What evolutionary advantage does music give?
    • Answer - Baby heads bigger → Birth canals more narrow → Earlier births → Longer dependence on mom = emotional bonds are good for survival

Main Point:
Passage A - Music and language originated in the same neurological system, but natural selection worked exclusively on language, bringing music along for the ride.

Passage B - As human infants were born earlier, they became more dependent on their mothers for longer periods of time, and so music provided an evolutionary advantage in creating strong emotional bonds between the two.

Key Lines:

Passage A:
Lines 1-2 - The central question of the passage
Lines 8-10 - An overall comparison
Lines 12-14 - A noteworthy difference
Lines 19-21 - The answer to the question
Lines 21-24 - A corollary to the answer

Passage B:
Lines 28-32 - An opposing expert view
Lines 32-37 - The Author's view
Lines 41-42 - Studies are introduced
Lines 50-51 - A question is asked
Lines 51-End - A causal chain that leads to an answer

Meta-Structure - Relationship Between Passages
While Passage A talks about the origination of both language and music, Passage B discusses only the latter. And the two authors have different opinions on its development. The Author of Passage A believes music and language "evolved together" (Line 20), but that natural selection worked on language, not music (Lines 23-24). The Author of Passage B, on the other hand, suggests an evolutionary basis for the development of language (Lines 57-62). So the Authors are largely in disagreement over the evolutionary history of music.

Question/Answer (Passage A) - Passage A has a central Question/Answer structure. The Author puts forward a question in Paragraph 1, and she then provides an answer to it in Paragraph 3. When a passage is built around a Question/Answer structure, the Author's answer to the question serves as the main point, which led us to the main point we wrote out above.

Question/Answer (Passage B) - Passage B has a Question/Answer structure, though it's limited to Paragraph 3 instead of being a central feature that defines the entire passage. However, it is still on a central topic of the passage, and so the answer needs to be reflected in the main point

Causal Chain (Passage B) - Science passages frequently deal with causality. Passage B presents a pretty long causal chain to explain the evolutionary basis of music (Lines 51-62), and knowing how heavily causality is featured in that passage will likely lead us to looking for causal answers when a question asks about it!

Last Thoughts:
We've summed this passage up pretty well so far, so let's head to the questions!

Question prompt

It can be inferred Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: D

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Science

Strategy Overview

Review any big—picture disagreements we noted when thinking about the relationship between the passages, then head to the answers using that as a guidepost

Answer Anticipation

We said the following about the relationship between the passages after reading the two:
While Passage A talks about the origination of both language and music, Passage B discusses only the latter. And the two authors have different opinions on its development. The Author of Passage A believes music and language "evolved together" (Line 20), but that natural selection worked on language, not music (Lines 23—24). The Author of Passage B, on the other hand, suggests an evolutionary basis for the development of language (Lines 57—62). So the Authors are largely in disagreement over the evolutionary history of music.
So, their main points disagree, in that Passage A believes music "ha[s] little adaptive value," while Passage B believes it led to emotional bonds between mother and child that conveyed "considerable evolutionary advantage." That's potentially the correct answer, but we need to also stay open to answers that bring up a smaller detail from the passages.

Answer choices

  1. A
    the increase in hominid Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 20—21; Lines 51—55) Both passages mention brain size increasing, but only Passage B connects it to earlier births, so this isn't a point at issue.
  2. B
    fewer differences than similarities Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 8—10) Passage B doesn't discuss language, so this answer is out of scope of that passage, even if it's stated in Passage A.
  3. C
    brain size increased rapidly Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. (Lines 20—21; Lines 51—52) Both passages say brain size increased, though only Passage B says this happened rapidly. So this is closer to a point of agreement than at issue.
  4. D
    the capacity to produce Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D matches the stem
    Correct. (Line 20; Lines 23—24; Lines 57—62) Passage A believes that music rode on the evolutionary coattails of language, but that it itself provides little adaptive value. Passage B, on the other hand, argues that it allows for emotional bonding between mother and infant, which is important when a baby needs so much attention and care. This answer is a point at issue between them, so it's the correct answer.
  5. E
    mother-infant bonding involves temporally Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited
    Incorrect. This is a tempting answer! This answer reflects the main point of Passage B. And Passage A says music has little adaptive value. However, this answer isn't about music — it's about temporally patterned vocal interactions, which could also describe regular language. So Passage A's Author doesn't necessarily disagree with this.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 7%
  2. B 23%
  3. C 8%
  4. D Credited 57%
  5. E 4%

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Discussion

  • Ans Choice B 2 replies

    Started by ankita96

  • Ans Choice B 1 reply

    Started by ankita96

  • Question 1 reply

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