LSAT 150 | Section 4 | Reading Comprehension: Q4

RC Question 4 Explanation

DISCUSSION: Lines 37-45 and 45-58 are crucial here. Basically:

• The critics are wrong about Marsalis. He didn’t advocate making no new music. Instead, he wanted new music to be a mix of new and old.
• But, Marsalis accidentally and indirectly caused the death of new jazz music. Thanks to him, record labels realized they could get more profits from the classics. Now only old music sells.

So, look for a situation where someone tries to do good, is criticized for wrong reasons, but actually did cause a problem for different reasons.

Well, that’s what I prephrased anyway. After reviewing the answers, it seems the structure they chose is “Someone tries to make something new and old, and as a result, only old is popular”.

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1. Here, the town’s plan was successful: they did slow the pace of housing development. Whereas Marsalis failed: he wanted people to make new music inspired by the classics. Instead, only the classics sell.
2. CORRECT. This matches. Hybrid = Marsalis’ new music influenced by tradition (lines 37-45). Traditional varieties = classic jazz sold by record labels.
3. This doesn’t match. In the passage, classical jazz was heavily marketed by Marsalis and by record labels, and its own sales increased. Here, the increase in sales comes to wool fabric, which wasn’t the fabric that was marketed.
4. This doesn’t match. In the passage, traditional jazz is the one with high sales. Here, the traditional herbal medicines are being replaced by new herbal medicines.
5. The endangered species is the “old” species, so the analogue in the passage would be classic jazz. But, classic jazz did extremely well, whereas here the endangered fish is in even more trouble.