Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Medium

PT151 S1 P3 Q16 ExplanationWords & Operas

A free, expert breakdown of this official LSAT Reading Comprehension question.

TopicsLocate DetailHumanities

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Passage

Passage A Music does not always gain by association with words. Like images, words can excite the deepest emotions but are inadequate to express the emotions they excite. Music is more adequate, and hence will often seize an emotion that may have been excited by images or words, deepen its expression, is how words can gain by being set to music.

But to set words to music—as in opera or song—is in fact to mix two arts together. A striking effect may be produced, but at the expense of the purity of each art. Poetry is a great art; so is music. But as a medium for emotion, each is greater alone than even the plot or scenery, but upon its emotional range—a region dominated by the musical element.

Passage B Throughout the history of opera, two fundamental types may be distinguished: that in which the music is primary, and that in which there is, essentially, parity between music and other factors. The former, sometimes called “singer’s opera”—a term which has earned undeserved contempt—is exemplified by most Italian operas, while the limited, and a fuller participation of music was required to establish opera on a secure basis.

In any event, in any aesthetic judgment of opera, regardless of the opera’s type, neither the music nor the poetry of the libretto should be judged in isolation. The music is good not if it would make a good concert piece but if it serves the particular situation in the opera in It is this union—further enriched and clarified by the visual action—that results in opera’s inimitable character.

What this question is testing

Locate Detail

Your task

Pin down exactly what the question asks about the passage — a detail, the author's view, the structure, or the main point — before looking at the choices.

Common trap

Answers that restate a true detail from the passage but don't answer the specific question being asked.

Winning move

Anticipate the answer in your own words from the passage, then find the choice that matches that prediction.

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
16.

Which one of the following issues is addressed by the author of passage A but not by the

Answer choices, explained

  1. Addressed in Both2% picked this

    the importance of music to any aesthetic judgment of an

    Both authors think that music is a crucial part of opera and would thus consider it important to any aesthetic judgment of an opera. Passage B in particular is stressing that "in any aesthetic judgment of opera, neither the music nor the poetry of the libretto should be judged in isolation".

  2. Addressed in Both11% picked this

    how music is affected when it is combined

    Both authors think that music is a crucial part of opera and would thus say that when the music of the opera is combined with the words of the opera, the music is affected. It becomes more than it previously was. Passage B says, "True, the elements of music and poetry may be considered separately, but ... in actuality these elements are as united as hydrogen and oxygen. This union results is opera's unique character."

  3. Correct81% picked this

    the ability of music to evoke an emotional response in

    Why this is right

    The concept of "emotion" is mentioned 6 times in passage A and 0 times in passage B (thank you, CTRL + F). The first paragraph of A definitely addresses the ability of music to evoke an emotional response, but passage B never talks about music's ability to evoke emotions. B's first paragraph just talks about the 3 different types of opera. B's second paragraph talks about how aesthetic judgments of opera need to consider how the music and poetry fit together. We might read into that discussion our own guess that "music adds to the poetry by making it more emotional for the listener", but Passage B never says anything like that.

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

  4. Addressed in B5% picked this

    whether music should ever be subordinated to words with which it

    The end of B's first paragraph addresses this: Theoretically, it would seem that there should be a third kind of opera, in which the music is subordinated to the other features ... Since those word-dominant operas has limited appeal, the author B suggests that there shouldn't be operas where music is subordinated to words.

  5. Addressed in B2% picked this

    whether music should be judged in isolation from the libretto

    The first sentence of B's final paragraph explicitly addresses this: neither the music nor the poetry of the libretto should be judged in isolation.

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