#4 – Global Reference, Parallel

[Administrator]

Please post below with any questions!

[bli2016]

I chose A for this question because I saw a parallel between the "unintended consequence" mentioned in the answer choice and the unintended consequence of Marsalis's emphasis on past jazz masters mentioned in the passage (i.e., causing record executives to prioritize repackaging vintage records over developing new talent). Also, I eliminated B because I paralleled the "well-known seed research firm" to the record companies and the passage did not mention that their method of repackaging vintage records (which I assume is the same as the "new hybrid tomatoes" in the answer choice) made traditional jazz record sales to "skyrocket" and sales of the repackaged vintages to decline. What am I missing here?

[Jonathan Evans]

Hi, Bli,

Good question. Let's step through the process for questions like these. When you are asked to parallel something in the passage, start by reading the relevant portion in detail and then describing the scenario, abstractly. The key is to hit the right amount of detail: too much detail and you are dealing with too many particulars, too little detail/too broad and several answers likely work.

In this case, a prephrase might look something like the following:

• Efforts to create something new by blending parts of old items leads instead to interest in the old items and lack of interest in the new creation.

Note that here that while "unintended consequences" might be a good parallel with (A), the rest of (A) doesn't match.

In contract, this prephrase syncs up well with the scenario described in the credited response, (B). "Seed-research firms" parallels with Marsalis in this construction. The qualitative difference between Marsalis, a person, and a seed-research firm, a company, does not detract sufficiently to prevent this answer from being the closest possible parallel among the answer choices.

[bli2016]

Thank you, Jonathan! I also noticed that I missed the part in the passage where it says Marsalis "demonstrated in his compositions how traditional elements can be alluded to... taking the nature of that tradition and trying to push it forward", because I was initially confused as to how Marsalis (in parallel to the "seed research firm") "aggressively" marketed new "hybrid" types of jazz.

[ddddd8888899999]

Could you please explain what makes E wrong ?

Thanks !

[Robert Carroll]

ddddd8888899999,

Answer choice (E) has an element with no analog in the passage - the predatory fish. The campaign is trying to save an endangered fish, but ends up allowing a predatory fish to thrive, endangering the endangered fish even further. What's the predatory fish in the stimulus? Wynton Marsalis wants jazz to thrive, so champions classicism, praising the jazz of the past. This causes old jazz recordings to be the only things record labels want to sell. So what's the predatory fish? It can't be classic jazz - Marsalis likes that, too. No one in answer choice (E) likes the predatory fish - their benefit is an unintended side effect of the protection measures for the endangered fish.

The parallel should be something like this - "People like this old thing. Let's try to show how this new thing is similar to this old thing, so people will like the new thing." And then...that campaign makes people like the old thing so much they stick with it instead of buying the new thing! Put like that, answer choice (E) looks nothing like the passage.

Robert Carroll