Reading comp PrepTest 123 · Section 4 · Question 13

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

Which one of the Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: E

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

Question Type

Science

Strategy Overview

Review the main point of each passage, and then head straight to the answers

Answer Anticipation

Principle (Strengthen) questions in RC will often have answers that support a big—picture part of the passage, but they sometimes address a much more limited aspect of it. This can make the correct answer hard to predict, which means that we should be spending more time analyzing answers than trying to anticipate them.
After reviewing the main points here, we know that the broad strokes of the passages disagree, but this question is asking for a principle that underlies (and thus would strengthen) both. So we're looking for a similarity. Both talk about evolution and music, so the correct answer might have to do with that, but these questions have answers as often about the methods of reasoning as they do about the content.
So are there any elements supporting the conclusions that are shared? Well, both do rely on studies, even if one is brain imaging studies and the other recording some mother—and—infant playtime. So that can potentially lead to a correct answer.
Otherwise, we're going in blind!

Answer choices

  1. A
    Investigations of the evolutionary Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited
    Incorrect. Both passages focused on humans, so this answer is out of scope.
  2. B
    All human capacities can Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B is not credited
    Incorrect. This answer undercuts Passage A's argument, which says that music — a human capacity — doesn't convey an adaptive advantage and thus can't be explained in terms of evolutionary advantages.
  3. C
    The fact that a Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited
    Incorrect. This would strengthen Passage A's argument that the shared neurological system of music and language means they evolved together, but Passage B talks about only a single human capacity.
  4. D
    The discovery of the Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited
    Incorrect. This principle doesn't underlie either passage. Passage B doesn't talk about neurological bases, so it's out of scope there. And Passage A says that language and music have the same neurological basis but their essences are different (language provides adaptive value while music doesn't), so that neurological basis can't serve as a complete explanation for both.
  5. E
    The behavior of modern-day Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E matches the stem
    Correct. (Line 6; Lines 41—46) Passage A used brain imaging studies to support its conclusion, and brains only work when people are alive. Passage B recorded moms and infants interacting — again, living people. The authors used the results of these studies to draw conclusions about the evolutionary origins of music (and language in Passage A). So both rely on studies of modern humans to draw conclusions about evolutionary origins of certain abilities. This answer therefore underlies both passages, making it the correct answer.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 5%
  2. B 23%
  3. C 24%
  4. D 19%
  5. E Credited 29%

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