19 - Model SAT Tests - Test Nineteen

19 - ] Model SAT Tests

Test Nineteen

Read the passages below , and then answer the questions that follow the passage . The correct response may be stated outright or merely suggested in the passage .

Rock musicians often affect the role of social revolutionaries . The following passage is taken from an unpublished thesis on the potential of rock and roll music to contribute to political and social change .

          It should be clear from the previous arguments that rock and roll cannot escape its role as a part of popular culture . One important part of that role is its commercial nature . Rock and roll is “big corporation business in America and around the globe . As David De Voss has noted : ‘Over fifty U.S. rock artists annually earn from $2 million to $6 million . At last count , thirty-five artists and fifteen additional groups make from three to seven times more than America’s highest paid business executive .”  

            Perhaps the most damning argument against rock and roll as a political catalyst is suggested by John Berger in an essay on advertising . Berger argues that “publicity turns consumption into a substitute for democracy . The choice of what one eats (or wears or drives ) takes the place of significant political choice .” To the extent that rock and roll is big business , and that it is marketed like other consumer goods , rock and roll also serves this role . Our freedom to choose the music we are sold may be distracting us from more important concerns . It is this tendency of rock and roll, fought against but also fulfilled by punk , that Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons describe in The Boy Looked at Johnny : The Obituary of Rock and Roll .

Never mind , kid , there’ll soon be another washing-machine / spot-cream / rock-     band on the market to solve all your problems and keep you quiet / off the street /distracted from the real enemy / content till the next pay-day . Anyhow , God Save Rock and Roll …. it made you a consumer , a potential Moron …..IT’S ONLY ROCK AND ROLL AND IT’S PLASTIC , PLASTIC .YES IT IS !!!!!

           This is a frustrating conclusion to reach , and it is especially frustrating for rock and roll artists who are dissatisfied with the political systems in which they live . If rock and roll’s ability to promote political change is hampered by its popularity , the factor that gives it the potential to reach significant numbers of people , to what extent can rock and roll artists act politically ? Apart from charitable endeavors , with which rock and roll artists have been quite successful at raising money for various causes , the potential for significant political activity promoting change appears quite limited .

            The history of rock and roll is filled with rock artists who abandoned , at least on vinyl , their political commitment . Both Dylan , who , by introducing the explicit politics of folk music to rock and roll , can be credited with introducing the political rock and roll of the sixties , quickly abandoned politics for more personal issues . John Lennon , who was perhaps more successful than any other rock and roll artist at getting political material to the popular audience , still had a hard time walking the line between being overtly political but unpopular and being apolitical and extremely popular . In 1969 “Give Peace a Chance” reached number fourteen on the Billboard singles charts . 1971 saw “Power to the People” at number eleven . But the apolitical “Instant Karma” reached number three on the charts one year earlier . “Imagine ,” which mixed personal and political concerns , also reached number three one year later . Lennon’s most political album , Some Time in New York City ,produced no hits . His biggest hits , “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” and “Starting Over.” which both reached number one on the charts , are apolitical . Jon Wiener , in his biography of Lennon , argues that on “Whatever Gets you Through the Night ,” “it seemed like John was turning himself into Paul , the person without political values , who put out Number One songs and who managed to sleep soundly . Maybe that’s why John )Lennon ) told Elton John that “ Whatever Gets You Through the Night” was ‘one of my least favorites.’ “When , after leaving music for five years , Lennon returned in 1980 with the best-selling Double Fantasy album , the subject of his writing was “caring , sharing , and being , a whole person .”

            The politically motivated rock and roll artist’s other option is to maintain his political commitment without fooling himself as to the ultimate impact his work will have . If his music is not doomed to obscurity by the challenge it presents to its listeners the artist is lucky . But even such luck can do nothing to protect his work from the misinterpretation it will be subjected to once it is popular . Tom Greene of the Mekons expresses the frustration such artists feel when he says , “You just throw your hands up in horror and try and …..I don’t know . I mean , what can you do / How can you possibly avoid being a part of the power relations that exist ?” The artist’s challenge is to try to communicate with his audience . But he can only take responsibility for his own intentions . Ultimately , it is the popular audience that must take responsibility for what it does with the artist’s work . The rock and roll artist cannot cause political change . But , if he is very lucky , the popular audience might let him contribute to the change it makes .

1 . De Voss’s comparison of the salaries of rock stars and corporate executives ( lines 4 - 7 ) is cited primarily in order to          

(A) express the author’s familiarity with current pay scales

(B) argue in favor of higher pay for musical artists

(C) refute the assertion that rock and roll stars are underpaid

(D) support the view that rock and roll is a major industry

(E) indicate the lack of limits on the wages of popular stars

2 . The underlined word “consumption” in paragraph 2 means

(A) supposition

(B) beginning a task

(C) using up goods

 (D) advertising a product

(E) culmination

3 . In the quotation cited in paragraph 2 “Never mind………IT IS !!!!! , Burchill and Parsons most likely run the words “washing-machine / spot-cream / rock-band” together to indicate that 

(A) to the consumer they are all commodities

(B) they are products with universal appeal

(C) advertisers need to market them differently

(D) rock music eliminates conventional distinctions

(E) they are equally necessary parts of modern society

4 . The underlined word “plastic” in the Burchill and Parsons quotation is being used

(A) lyrically (B) spontaneously (C) metaphorically (D) affirmatively (E) skeptically

5 . Their comments “ Anyhow , God Save Rock and Roll ….it made you a consumer , a potential Moron ….suggest that Burchill and Parsons primarily regard consumers as 

(A) invariably dimwitted

(B) markedly ambivalent

(C) compulsively spendthrift

(D) unfamiliar with commerce

(E) vulnerable to manipulation

6 .The author’s comments about Bob Dylan in paragraph 4 chiefly suggest that

(A) Dylan readily abandoned political rock and roll for folk music

(B) folk music gave voice to political concerns long before rock and roll music did

(C) rock and roll swiftly replaced folk music in the public’s affections

(D) Dylan lacked the necessary skills to convey his political message musically

(E) Dylan betrayed his fans’ faith in him by turning away from political commentary

7 .Wiener’s statement quoted “ it seemed ….favorites.” paragraph 4 suggests that

(A) John had no desire to imitate more successful performers

(B) John was unable to write Number One songs without help from Paul

(C) because Paul lacked political values , he wrote fewer Number One songs than John did

(D) as am apolitical performer , Paul suffered less strain than John did

(E) John disliked “Whatever Gets You Through the Night” because it had been composed by Paul

8. In paragraph 4 , “Starting Over” and the Double Fantasy album are presented as examples of  

(A) bold applications of John’s radical philosophy

(B) overtly political recordings without general appeal

(C) profitable successes lacking political content

(D) uninspired and unpopular rock and roll records

(E) unusual recordings that effected widespread change

9 . The underlined word “maintain” in paragraph 5 means

(A) repair (B) contend (C) subsidize (D) brace (E) keep

10 . As quoted in paragraph 5 , Tom Greene of the Mekons feels particularly frustrated because  

(A) his work has lost its initial popularity

(B) he cannot escape involvement in the power structure

(C) his original commitment to political change has diminished

(D) he lacks the vocabulary to make coherent political statements

(E) he is horrified by the price he must pay for political success

11 . The author attributes the success of the politically motivated rock and roll artist to

(A) political influence

(B) challenging material

(C) good fortune

(D) personal contacts

(E) textual misinterpretation

12 . In the last paragraph , the author concludes that the rock and roll artist’s contribution to political change is

(A) immediate (B) decisive (C) indirect (D) irresponsible (E) blatant