A. jazz works
B. popular songs
C. symphonic music
D. spirituals
E. blues pieces
此题正确答案为D。文中开始谈到Johnson作为伟大爵士音乐家,因为其创始了新的风格,其中包括了blues and jazz。而在文章末句提到了他吸收了同时代的popular music以及symphonic。注意该题的spirituals文中确实也出现过,但是措辞用的是borrow from,题干问的是compose.
7. Consider each of the choices separately and select all that apply.
The author suggests which of the following about most classical composers of the early 1920's?
A. They were strongly influenced by the musical experiments of Milhaud and Gershwin.
B. They had little working familiarity with such forms of American music as jazz, blues, and popular songs
C. They made few attempts to introduce innovations into the classical symphonic tradition
本题即为新GRE阅读中新酝酿推出的所谓恐怖的“多选题”。其实这种题型即为原来GRE阅读中罗马数字题的变体,只是难度进一步加大。正确答案B。--They had little working familiarity with such forms of American music as jazz, blues, and popular songs。本题从出题点分析涉及文中的比较点。最后的逻辑关系用东方阅读体系表示可以是:Johnson=Milhaud and Gershwin<>most composers。运用取非解题思路。
8. The author suggests that most critics have
A. underrated the popularity of Yamekraw
B. undervalued Johnson's musical abilities
C. had little interest in Johnson's influence on jazz
D. had little regard for classical works that incorporate popular music
E. neglected Johnson's contribution to classical symphonic music
此题正确答案为E。该题题干提到的critics指引考生定位到文章首段。经过逻辑和套路熟练训练后,不难把握Music critics have consistently defined James P. Johnson as a great early jazz pianist…… however, Johnson was an innovator in classical music。类似于两个观点的对立,为结构上重要内容。
Questions 9 and 10 are based on the following reading passage.
Scholarship on political newspapers and their editors is dominated by the view that as the United States grew, the increasing influence of the press led, ultimately, to the neutral reporting from which we benefit today. Pasley considers this view oversimplified, because neutrality was not a goal of early national newspaper editing, even when editors disingenuously stated that they aimed to tell all sides of a story. Rather, the intensely partisan ideologies represented in newspapers of the early republic led to a clear demarcation between traditional and republican values. The editors responsible for the papers' content — especially those with republican agendas — began to see themselves as central figures in the development of political consciousness in the United States.
本文为符合现行GRE考试部分文章套路分类中的广义新老观点对比型。文首观点说报纸最后的政治取向将会趋于neutral。而之后Pasley提出的观点否认了这种看法(oversimplified)。具体从早期国家报纸的党派差异论证自己观点。文章首句符合一贯GRE阅读的品味:长度达到35词的复杂难句子,为理解上的一个难点。