Reading Comprehension

PT123 · S4 · P2 · Q13 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.

13.

Which one of the following principles underlies the arguments in both passages?

  1. Investigations of the evolutionary origins

    Out of Scope

    Neither passage discusses nonhuman animals.

    2% picked this

  2. All human capacities can be

    Too Strong

    Both passages assume that some human capacities can be explained in terms of the evolutionary advantages they confer (third and sixth paragraph), but neither assumes this to be true for all human capacities.

    20% picked this

  3. The fact that a single

    Half Scope

    This underlies the argument in passage A (third paragraph), but not passage B.

    14% picked this

  4. The discovery of the neurological

    Out of Scope

    Neither passage discusses the essence of a human behavior.

    20% picked this

  5. Correct

    The behavior of modern-day humans

    Why this is right

    This is supported in the second and fifth paragraph.

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

    45% picked this

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