#24 - Concept Reference, Must Be True

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A): This answer would be a good reflection of the attitude of the author of passage A, but not passage B.

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

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


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

[loveydog]

Why is A better than E here? They seem very similar to me.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

Hi loveydog,

I'm not sure exactly where your confusion is---answer choice (E) is the correct answer on 24. Each author here shows respect for the different musicians' artistry. Answer choice (A) would be a good reflection of the attitude of the author of passage A, but not passage B.

The more information you can give us in your question about your confusion, or where you were stuck, the easier it is for us to help!

Rachael

[vbkehs]

I thought that both authors, by noting the historical context within which these forms of music arose, were implicitly expressing approval for their roles as community historians (D). Can you please explain the difference between D and E?

[KelseyWoods]

Hi vbkehs!

Passage A and passage B both explicitly display approval of griots' roles as community historians, but the question stem asks us about passage A's attitude toward blues musicians. Passage A states "The blues musician, in contrast, honed a music of personal expression, often reflecting a lack of connection to the broader streams of society, evoking feelings of alienation and anomie" (lines 14-17, 1st sentence of the 2nd paragraph). Thus, passage A does NOT seem to think that blues musicians act as community historians, as "Slavery destroyed in large part the traditional social fabric, the communal values, the historical continuities that made the griot's art possible" (lines 18-21, middle of 2nd paragraph).

Hope this helps!

Best,
Kelsey

[heatherwlk]

hello!

For this question, I chose AC (A) at first glance. However, although it was clear from passage a to explicitly state how the author was admirable for the ability to represent personal struggles symbolically, I was more implicit in passage B.

In passage B, rather than displaying personal struggles within their songs, it seems that the griots were able to bring importance to communal values and social conduct. Thus, passage A focuses on personal struggle while passage B focuses on the importance and acceptance of griot's songs.

I feel like the reason why I was confused between AC A and E is because 'admiration' and 'respect' seemed to entail quite similar attributes. However, when I dove deeper to provide evidence for AC A, that is when it became more apparent that AC E was correct.

[Rachael Wilkenfeld]

I agree that admiration and respect are fairly similar verbs, Heather. The aspect of answer choice (A) that I most disagree with is the idea of personal struggle. We definitely see that with the blues musician in Passage A. However, with the griot in Passage B, we don't see that aspect of personal struggle. The griot isn't singing anything personal at all, but rather singing about their patron.

[sqmusgrave]

Hi! I see Kelsey’s helpful response on why D doesn’t work but I have a remaining question.

She says the reason A doesn’t think blues musicians had a role of community historian is because
“Passage A states "The blues musician, in contrast, honed a music of personal expression, often reflecting a lack of connection to the broader streams of society, evoking feelings of alienation and anomie" (lines 14-17, 1st sentence of the 2nd paragraph). Thus, passage A does NOT seem to think that blues musicians act as community historians, as "Slavery destroyed in large part the traditional social fabric, the communal values, the historical continuities that made the griot's art possible" (lines 18-21, middle of 2nd paragraph).”

However, I still chose D because ultimately the author concludes that blues artists “reflected this [social] dynamic, [and] gave it powerful poetic expression. From this perspective, the perennial themes of blues music--heartache and hardships-capture in a personal dimension the larger social truth. “
(Last 5 lines).

Because of this I thought the author was implying that the blues musicians do play a role in recording history because their music reflects the social conditions/truths that caused the themes in their music. Thus, they seem to be playing a role in conveying history.

Can you help me see how the author doesn’t think that their reflecting of social dynamics indicates they play a sort of role as a community historian?

[Dana D]

Hey SQ,

With RC, we have to treat the passages as stimuli, the same way we do with LR sections. This is a MBT question, meaning the inclusion of the line in passage A which says history was destroyed is important - it's ruling out answer choice (D) as a viable MBT answer. We cannot say the author of passage A thinks blues music was history based on this line alone.

Hope that helps!