Q3

[andrewgong01]

Direct support seems hard to find. Based of the answer choices given , I think the assumption made (or the idea being tested) is that the author does not like the fact that record companies only focus on vintages for profit reasons. I can't find support for this though. The only author's stance I see is on line 37 that the author doens't think it is 100% Marsalis fault.

Update: (not an issue for me anymore but I will leave the post here if anyone else had trouble): I think the support is on line 24 where the author said that it is a "grime state of affairs" . This grim affairs is about the paragraph above that firms like Columbia has reduced the amount of jazz musician it endorses so the author probably wants to see more endorsement of new talents. Then this would support "D" and make "D" a very easy straightforward answer and question

A) I ruled it out because "outspoken" may be a bit extreme. More importantly, even if the tone softened what does that have to do with the state of affairs for jazz as a whole?

B) Sounds good until it says to release more music with traditional influences. If anything it seems like this will only further cause record companies to stop sponsoring new jazz musicians. The assumption though is that the author wants to see new jazz musicians

C) We don't seem to know what effect Marsalis would have by speaking out. It seems like record companies are doing it for profit reasons. Regardless support is not there in that we don't know what would happen if Marsalis speak out or like what his current status is (e.g. do people still listen to him when he speaks , is his reputation bad that he is no longer influential etc)

D) I honestly think this , as a credited response, depended more on common sense and general feel than support from the passage. I don't think the passage ever said anything that it was "bad" that record companies were not endorsing new talents. , What if the author is a shareholder of a record company and is glad that overall there is shift to focus on the vintages?

E) If this happened we expect to see even less new jazz musicians recording. But like D this goes to an assumption on does the author want to see new musicians