Reading Comprehension

PT123 · S4 · P2 · Q12 The Capacity for Music

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The two passages discuss recent scientific research on music.

Main Point (Passage A)

Music, it would seem, had little adaptive value of its own, and most likely developed on the coattails of language (lines 25–27).

Passage Map (Passage A)

P1 - A question about music and language is posed. P2 - Music and language are compared. P3 - An answer to the question is offered—music developed on the coattails of language.

Main Point (Passage B)

I suggest that the enjoyment of and the capacity to produce musical notes are faculties of indispensable use to mothers and their infants and that it is in the emotional bonds created by the interaction of mother and child that we can discover the evolutionary origins of human music (lines 32–37).

Passage Map (Passage B)

P1 - A hypothesis is offered about the origins of music. P2 - A phenomenon is described. P3 - An explanation of that phenomenon is offered, which supports the hypothesis.

12.

The authors would be most likely to agree on the answer to which one of the following questions regarding musical capacity in humans?

  1. Does it manifest itself in

    Half Scope

    The author of passage B would have an answer (fourth paragraph), but the author of passage A does not take a position.

    4% picked this

  2. Does it affect the strength

    Half Scope

    The author of passage B would have an answer (fourth paragraph), but the author of passage A does not take a position.

    2% picked this

  3. Correct

    Is it at least partly

    Why this is right

    This is supported in the third paragraph and the sixth paragraph.

    Skill tested: Author Opinion · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

    79% picked this

  4. Did its evolution spur the

    Half Scope

    The author of passage A would have an answer (second paragraph), but the author of passage B does not take a position.

    11% picked this

  5. Why does it vary so

    Half Scope

    The author of passage A would have an answer (third paragraph), but the author of passage B does not take a position.

    4% picked this

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