PrepTest 150

[lcid:3699] Prep Test 150 LSAT — Reading Comp — S4 Reading comp

Passage

Questions 1-7 This passage was adapted from an article published in 2003.  .       For two decades, Wynton Marsalis complemented  . Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Background on Marsalis's peak and his/jazz's uncertain future
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • At Wynton Marsalis's peak, he was a major influencer and advocate for jazz music, but now he faces a critical backlash for his "neotraditionalism," and he and the jazz music genre face an uncertain future (second through last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "extraordinary gifts" (first sentence), "pursuasive advocacy" (first sentence); "importance" (first sentence); "virtually unqualified admiration" (second sentence) "unsurpassed influence" (second sentence) "But…" (last sentence), "the biggest name in jazz" (last sentence), "uncertain" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Elaborates on Marsalis's/jazz's uncertain future
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Examples showing how Marsalis and jazz face uncertain futures, according to author:
      • Marsalis has not released any new music since 1999 (second sentence)
      • Marsalis no longer has a record contract with any company (third sentence)
      • Record companies are not signing or promoting contemporary jazz artists (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "prestigious" (third sentence); "essentially gave up" (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Critics: Marsalis is to blame since he emphasized classicism and discouraged innovation
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Cause-and-effect relaionship, according to critics:
      • Marsalis' emphasis on tradition has stifled innovation in jazz the genre, which has partially caused some of the problems facing jazz (first through last sentence)
    • Example to support critics' point of view:
      • Quote from Columbia music executive (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "grim state of affairs" (first sentence); "evident master" (first sentence)

Paragraph 4

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's rebuttal: Marsalis encouraged innovation, but record companies took the wrong lesson
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Marsalis never just replicated tradition — he explored how traditional elements could be reimagined in new contexts (second sentence)
    • Record executives' view:
      • Marsalis showed how great and timeless old jazz artists were, so record companies should exclusively release older jazz recordings instead of investing in new jazz artists (third through last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "Indeed" (first sentence); "great emphasis" (first sentence); "Still" (second sentence); "never advocated mere revivalism" (second sentence); "individualistic expression" (second sentence); "push it forward" (second sentence)

Paragraph 5

  • Paragraph note
    • Author's explanation of the current state of jazz
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author's view:
      • Marsalis's promotion of jazz masters led record companies to see the jazz masters as "brand names," which led the companies to re-release jazz albums from these masters rather than fund new talent (first and last sentence)
    • Comparison of responses to Marsalis's promotion of jazz masters, according to the author:
      • Young jazz musicians viewed jazz masters as role models, critics viewed this promotion as excessive worship, and record companies realized the jazz masters are profitable brand names (first sentence)
    • Comparison of market incentives for record companies, according to the author:
      • It's far more profitable to re-release old albums than to find, record, and promote new artists (last sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "brand names" (first sentence); "the ultimate prize" (first sentence), "irresistible" (last sentence), "far more profitable" (second sentence)

Main Point: By championing an appreciation for jazz traditions amongst his followers, Wynton Marsalis has ironically helped record companies realize that they should exclusively re-release old jazz albums rather than promote modern artists.

Key Lines?

Paragraph 1, Sentence 3 (P1, S3)- Introduces phenomenon

P3, S1 - Critics' explanation

P3, S3 - Example supporting critics' point of view

P4, S2-3 - Author's explanation

Meta-Structure?

Phenomenon/Explanation: We think the Phenomenon/Explanation Meta-Structure best fits this passage's structure*. In this passage, the author introduces a phenomenon and offers two related explanations for that phenomenon. In the first paragraph, the author introduces the phenomenon — that jazz music now faces an uncertain future. After providing the specifics of this "grim state of affairs" in the second paragraph, the third paragraph describes some critics' explanation for jazz's decline. The critics allege that Wynton Marsalis, a popular jazz trumpeter and jazz history advocate, is to blame for jazz's downfall (P3, S1). The author provides their own account in the fourth paragraph. The author argues that the critics are only partially correct. The author notes that Marsalis never wanted to stifle jazz's innovation; however, his promotion of jazz masters led record companies to realize that it's more profitable to re-release jazz masters' recordings than to find and promote new artists (P4, S2 - P5, S2).

In a Phenomenon/Explanation Meta-Structure, the main point is generally the explanation that the author presents or endorses. Here, the author presents their explanation in the fourth and fifth paragraphs. Because the author did not summarize the main point in one sentence, we did so for the author: "By championing an appreciation for jazz traditions amongst his followers, Wynton Marsalis has ironically helped record companies realize that they should exclusively re-release old jazz albums rather than promote modern artists."

*Since the author ultimately disagrees with the critics' explanation, you might see this as a Criticizing a Viewpoint, Rebutting Critics, or Correcting the Record passage. We don't think the author spends enough time criticizing/rebutting/correcting the critics to apply any of these Meta-Structures. Alternatively, there's an argument that this is an Importance of Subject passage. Despite our quibbles, any one of these designations would likely lead you to a solid understanding of this passage's structure. Let's keep in mind that the Meta-Structures are tools to help us think about and describe the passage's structure. We don't need to be 100% correct in which Meta-Structure we choose to develop a strong structural understanding.

 

Last Thoughts?

There's plenty of author's attitude here (which shouldn't surprise us, given the humanities subject matter). Tracking the author's attitude is one of our primary jobs as we read Reading Comprehension passages. Doing so will help us understand the Meta-Structure and the main point and even predict where the author's argument will go. When we can trace this much attitude, we should also expect an abnormally high percentage of the questions to relate to the author's beliefs.

Question prompt

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

Credited answer: B

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

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Review the relevant part of the passage and notes, if necessary, to anticipate key features of the situation facing Marsalis

Answer Anticipation

These Application/Analogous Situation questions closely resemble Parallel Reasoning questions in Logical Reasoning. We want to find the answer choice that is structurally similar to the element we're asked to analogize. The correct answer won't have the same subject matter as the passage; instead, it will feature similar characteristics or themes as the element from the passage. Therefore, we should start by reviewing the key features of the element we're asked to parallel.In this case, we're asked to find a situation analogous to the "situation facing Marsalis." That's a pretty vague prompt. For that reason, we may not be able to form as precise of a prediction as we'd like. Still, we should be able to identify a few key characteristics of Marsalis's situation and find the answer choice with the greatest number of these characteristics.If we need to review the passage, the first and second paragraphs will provide us with the most details. As the author says, at Marsalis's peak, he was a major influencer and advocate for jazz music, but now he faces a critical backlash for his "neotraditionalism" and an uncertain future (P1, S2-3). In particular, as a result of his "neotraditionalism," record companies are not signing or promoting contemporary jazz artists and are instead just reissuing old jazz recordings (P2, S3-4). In fact, even Marsalis now lacks a record contract (P2, S3). So, we'll look for an answer choice in which someone promotes something — like Marasalis's promotion of jazz traditions. But, we'll want that person's successful promotion to have unintended, negative consequences for that person or something they care about — just as Marsalis's promotion of jazz traditions led record companies to stop supporting contemporary jazz musicians.This anticipation may sound rather broad, but we want our anticipation to be very general for these questions. This will help us assess the elements or themes of the answer choices independent of their subject matter.

Answer choices

  1. A
    A town council's successful Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this answer choice present a situation in which someone's successful promotion of something leads to unexpected, negative consequences for that person or something they care about?

    Not quite. This answer choice features "unintended consequences," but it's not evident that these consequences are entirely negative. The town council discouraged housing development, which led to higher housing prices. That's bad news for renters in this town but good news for those who own their house.

    Even if we interpret these consequences as unambiguously negative, this town council discourages development. The passage makes it plain that Marsalis didn't want to discourage the development of jazz or its young artists (P4, S2).

    So, while this answer choice is somewhat close to our anticipation, there are enough dissimilarities to keep looking.

  2. B
    A well-known seed research Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) Does this answer choice present a situation in which someone's successful promotion of something leads to unexpected, negative consequences for that person or something they care about?

    Yes! In this case, the research firm promotes a hybrid tomato designed to taste like a traditional tomato, which unexpectedly leads to increased sales of traditional tomatoes and decreased sales of hybrid tomatoes. So, the research firm successfully promoted something that led to unexpected, negative consequences for that firm.

    Unlike (A), this consequence is unambiguously negative for the research firm. (B) also features many other analogies to Marsalis's situation that (A) lacks. The research firm is "well-known," just as Marsalis "ruled the jazz universe" (P1, S1). The research firm promoted something new that was designed to mimic something traditional, just as Marsalis did with his "neotraditional" jazz (P4, S1-2). And, just as record companies gained profits from selling "traditional" jazz recordings (P5, S2), producers of traditional tomatoes are earning profits.

    In other words, there are a lot of similarities to Marsalis's situation. It's a bit risky to select an Analogous Situation answer choice without reading all the options. But if there was ever a time such a decision was justified, this is it.

  3. C
    A producer of wool Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this answer choice present a situation in which someone's successful promotion of something leads to unexpected, negative consequences for that person or something they care about?

    Not really. While there are negative consequences for the synthetic-fabric producer, it wasn't because the synthetic-fabric producer successfully promoted something. Instead, the synthetic-fabric producer failed to get consumers to like their synthetic fabrics, which drove consumers to the wool-fabric producer. And if we look at this from the perspective of the wool-fabric producer, it enjoys a positive outcome, unlike Marsalis.

  4. D
    A firm that has Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this answer choice present a situation in which someone's successful promotion of something leads to unexpected, negative consequences for that person or something they care about?

    Nope. There are negative consequences for the herbal medicine firm. But those negative consequences aren't because they promoted something that led to unexpected repercussions. They just face increased competition from upstart companies. This is very different from Marsalis's situation. He's a renowned jazz artist active in an era when record companies aren't promoting new jazz artists — if anything, he now faces less competition from upstarts than he ever did.

  5. E
    A campaign to save Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this answer choice present a situation in which someone's successful promotion of something leads to unexpected, negative consequences for that person or something they care about?

    Not quite. (E) depicts unintended, negative consequences of the campaign to save an endangered fish. However, did the campaign promoters advocate for the "ban on fishing" in the endangered fish's lakes? We don't know. So, this could be slightly different from Marsalis's situation since Marsalis personally advocated for attention to jazz history. 

    Moreover, (E) simply includes fewer similarities to Marsalis's situation than (B). While (B) mirrors Marsalis's situation by featuring someone well-known promoting something traditional, (E) does not. The negative consequences in (B) are also financial — just as record companies divesting money from new artists to reissues is an economic consequence — while the repercussions in (E) are ostensibly not. 

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