#6 - Global Reference, Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Please post below with any questions!

[swong1267]

Why is the answer A? I crossed it off because of "ironically." I chose D instead, because I thought the author would find that surprising.

[Emily Haney-Caron]

Hi swong1267,

For A, it is ironic, because some of the critics were the records companies! See lines 30-35 or so. Does that make sense?

For answer D, can you explain what from the passage made you think it was a good fit? That can help me tailor my answer to you.

[mjb514]

How do we know the author would not agree with E?

[Robert Carroll]

mjb,

There is no indication in the passage that the number of new CDs alone was a problem. Even the critics do not charge this. The nature of the music is something that has led to some criticism - the number of CDs is not an issue.

Robert Carroll

[oli_oops]

Hello,

I did not choose A because I couldn't find in the passage anything that's supporting "that is more rigid than that attributed to Marsalis by critics". I did find answers B through E all talking about something not really mentioned in the passage. Though I chose D instead of A because I couldn't really verify A.
Can someone please explain why A is correct in a more thorough way?

Thank you!!

oli

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi oiloops,

Good question!

The bulk of your answer can be found in the second to last paragraph (and right above it). In that paragraph, the author discusses how and why Marsalis put so much emphasis on the past. He wanted to use the past to push the genre forward by building on the work of past masters. But, and here is where the irony comes in, by elevating past masters, Marsalis actually made it harder for the new jazz musicians to innovate. Record labels saw how popular the past musicians were and stopped putting out records by new artists. By trying to push the genre forward in a classical way, Marsalis ended up freezing the genre in it's tracks.

All of this can be found in the second to last paragraph.

Hope that helps!
Rachael

[valentina07]

Can you explain how AC(B) is wrong?

[Adam Tyson]

I see two problems with answer B, valentina07. First, the critics never said that Marsalis was not promoting new artists, only that he was advocating a focus on tradition and past masters. Second, there is no evidence that Marsalis promoted new artists, "energetically" or otherwise. In order for us to support an answer, it can't just feel like it might be true; it must be based on specific text in the passage. Is it possible that critics said Marsalis was not promoting new artists? Sure, it's possible, but the passage didn't discuss it. Is it possible that he was energetically promoting new artists? Sure, but again, there is nothing in the text that suggests that. Thus, there is no support for that answer choice. It's just pure speculation on our part if we choose it.

[miriamson07]

I chose answer choice E because of the sentence “in 1999, to mark the end of the century, Marsalis issued a total of fifteen new CDs. In the following two years he did not release a single collection of new music.” Would it not be reasonable to infer that the contrast between 15 new CDs, that “mark the end of the century,” would indicate support of old jazz from Marsalis, especially in contrast to releasing 0 new collections afterwards?