#4 - Concept Reference, Must Be True, Purpose/Function

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (B).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):


This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[menkenj]

I was able to narrow down the choices to B and C, yay progress!

However, I chose wrong, bummer.

Why is C wrong and B right?

Is it because the author didn't talk about whether the pressure to Europeanize the sorrow songs was from internal or external pressure?

[Adam Tyson]

More than that, Julie - the author indicates that the pressure WAS external! It was someone from outside that tradition - Burleigh - who arranged the songs to be sung "in the manner of an art song." Don't be fooled by the fact that Burleigh was black; he came from a different time and place than the slaves in the Carolina sea islands who developed these songs.

The contrast is set up in the structure of the paragraph: In 1862, X happened...BUT by 1916, we see something different has occurred. That structure supports answer B.

And yes, yay progress!

[menkenj]

Revisited this passage today and it felt fresh. Was able to choose correctly this time!
I was able to see that the credited answer is correct because the author uses the example of sorrow songs to support the final sentence of the first paragraph. This tradition that Hughes rebelled against makes Europeanization of art African American art necessary for acceptance and integration. So while a few white writers responded favorably when first hearing sorrow songs, they were not accepted or integrated until they were adapted to European style. The support here is the purpose and is what the right answer is getting at.

[sadjasmine]

Is it safe to have chosen B rather than C because I deduced that the second part of answer choice C "was unrelated to literary standards or attitudes of White writers" can't be logically inferred from anywhere in the passage making that part 'out of scope' ??
I ended up narrowing my choices down to B and C and chose B correctly but I don't think my reasoning for why C is incorrect is very solid..
I also feel that maybe my 'outside knowledge' and/or assumed thoughts that 'there's no way the requirement was completely unrelated to white writers at the time' is what pushed me away from C..

I guess my question is just essentially what is the correct reasoning as what makes C incorrect?

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Jasmine, the pressure to become Europeanized wasn't internal to African American traditions, it was external to them. It was only someone that wasn't a part of the original traditional songs (from a different time) that eventually made them Europeanized. Did that help eliminate answer choice (C) for you?