#18 - Concept Reference, Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[Administrator]

Please post your questions below!

[fashionlaw]

I'm having trouble understanding why D is the answer? I'm now realizing the wording of the question may have threw me off along with the tone in the last paragraph.
- bre

[Robert Carroll]

Bre,

The author of passage B distinguishes three kinds of opera in the first paragraph - those where music and other elements have parity, those in which music predominates, and those in which non-musical elements predominate. The second paragraph merely states the author's opinion that judgment of the elements cannot be done in isolation, so whether there is parity or one aspect predominates, the judgment of the work must consider the opera as a whole. Thus, the author is not saying that one of the three kinds of opera in the first paragraph is "correct" or inherently better than the others. This is the basis of answer choice (D).

Robert Carroll

[fortunateking]

Dear PS people,
What does (A) "primarily a popular" means? Can we say that because the third one (music is subordinated to other features) has limited appeal and had vanished, so opera in which the words are subordinated to the music is popular?
and, for (D), I know it's the correct answer, but where does the legitimate thing come from?
for (E), what does a concert piece? Is it not right because we don't know what a concert piece means from the passage?

[Robert Carroll]

fortunateking,

Answer choice (A) is not correct. There is no way to infer that, because one type is unpopular, anything else must be popular. Further, answer choice (A) does not say that this form is popular in general, but primarily a popular art form. There is simply no basis for this answer.

The author thinks that the "singer's opera" has earned undeserved contempt. So the contempt is not deserved. Therefore the art form is better than deserving contempt. That's enough to show it's legitimate. Answer choice (D) just relies on the standard meaning of "legitimate", and there's no reason that word has to be found in the passage.

"Concert piece" is in fact discussed in the second paragraph of passage B. The author thinks judging the music of an opera as a "concern piece" is actually a bad way to judge it, as the proper judgment is the combination of all elements, musical and otherwise. So answer choice (E) looks opposed to the author's viewpoint.

Robert Carroll