LSAT 150 | Section 4 | Reading Comprehension: Q1

RC Question 1 Explanation

DISCUSSION: The main point is that jazz is in trouble, Wynton Marsalis is involved, and some blame him (perhaps unfairly).

On a main point question, an answer first has to be true in the passage. Being true doesn’t make an answer the main point, but it’s a necessary condition. Here, unusually, three of the answers aren’t even true.

___________

1. This doesn’t make sense. Record companies aren’t targeting Marsalis in particular. The companies are only publishing classic jazz. That means old recordings of dead artists. It’s true that they’re not publishing Marsalis’ new music, but that’s because the music is new. Lines 18-23 make clear that record labels aren’t developing new jazz artists generally.
2. The passage doesn’t say any of this. It’s true that lines 37-45 are somewhat “contrary” to the critics’ message, but the rest of this answer simply wasn’t in the passage.
3. It’s unclear what Wynton Marsalis has done recently: he doesn’t have any contracts with record labels and hasn’t released music since 1999. See lines 11-18.
4. CORRECT. This is a good summary. It doesn’t cover Wynton’s critics, but does indirectly address that aspect. Their main criticism was that Marsalis had stifled the development of new jazz, and this answer does address the fact that labels no longer develop new jazz talent.
5. This only covers paragraph 1. Main point questions have to cover the whole passage’s main point. This answer should have had something about record labels: they were a major focus of the passage.