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Medical College Admission Test: Verbal Reasoning, Biological Sciences, Physical Sciences, Writing Sample (Page 12 )

Updated On: 24-Sep-2026
Page 12 of 164
PDF with 811 Questions

"Bebop lives!" cries the newest generation of jazz players. During the 1980s, musicians like Wynton Marsalis revived public interest in bebop, the speedy, angular music that first bubbled up out of Harlem in the early 1940s, changing the face of jazz. That Marsalis and others thought of themselves as celebrating and preserving a noble tradition is, in one sense, inevitable. After the excesses of experimental or "free" jazz in the 1960s and the electronic jazz-rock "fusion" of the 70s, it is hardly surprising that people should hearken back to a time when jazz was "purer", perhaps even at the apex of its development. But the recent enthusiasm for bebop is also ironic in light of the music's initial public reception.
In its infancy, during the first two decades of the 20th century, jazz was played by small groups of musicians improvising variations on blues tunes and popular songs. Most of the musicians were unable to read music, and their improvisations were fairly rudimentary. Nevertheless, jazz attained international recognition in the 1920s. Two of the people most responsible for its rise in popularity were Louis Armstrong, the first great jazz soloist, and Fletcher Henderson, leader of the first great jazz band. Armstrong, with his buoyant personality and virtuosic technical skills, greatly expanded the creative range and importance of the soloist in jazz. Henderson, a pianist with extensive training in music theory, foresaw the orchestral possibilities of jazz played by a larger band. He wrote out arrangements of songs for his band members that preserved the spirit of jazz, while at the same time giving soloists a more structured musical background upon which to shape their solo improvisations. In the 1930s, jazz moved further into the mainstream with the advent of the Swing Era. Big bands in the Henderson mold, led by musicians like Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, achieved unprecedented popularity with jazz-oriented "swing" music that was eminently danceable.
Against this musical backdrop, bebop arrived on the scene. Like other modernist movements in art and literature, bebop music represented a departure from tradition in both form and content, and was met with initial hostility. Bebop tempos were unusually fast, with the soloist often playing at double time to the backing musicians. The rhythms were tricky and complex, the melodies intricate and frequently dissonant, involving chord changes and notes not previously heard in jazz. Before bebop, jazz players had improvised on popular songs such as those produced by Tin-Pan Alley, but bebop tunes were often originals with which jazz audiences were unfamiliar.
Played mainly by small combos rather than big bands, bebop was not danceable; it demanded intellectual concentration. Soon, jazz began to lose its hold on the popular audience, which found the new music disconcerting. Compounding public alienation was the fact that bebop seemed to have arrived on the scene in a completely mature state of development, without that early phase of experimentation that typifies so many movements in the course of Western music. This was as much the result of an accident of history as anything else. The early development of bebop occurred during a three-year ban on recording in this country made necessary by the petrol and vinyl shortages of World War II). By the time the ban was lifted, and the first bebop records were made, the new music seemed to have sprung fully-formed like Athena from the forehead of Zeus. And though a small core of enthusiasts would continue to worship bebop pioneers like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, many bebop musicians were never able to gain acceptance with any audience and went on to lead lives of obscurity and deprivation.
It can be inferred from the passage that the innovations of Fletcher Henderson (lines 27-34) were inspired primarily by:

  1. his admiration for Louis Armstrong.
  2. a hunger for international recognition.
  3. the realization that the public favored large bands over small combos.
  4. a desire to go beyond the structural limitations of early jazz music.

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

This is an inference question about the innovations of Fletcher Henderson, a key figure in jazz during the 1920s. Henderson's innovations are discussed in the sixth and seventh sentences of the second paragraph.
Remember that the question stem seeks something that inspired Henderson. Sentence six says that Henderson, unlike many jazz musicians before him, had extensive training in music theory, and that he saw the creative possibilities in jazz played by a larger band. Sentence 7 says that Henderson's song arrangements gave jazz soloists "a more structured musical background upon which to shape their solo improvisations". We know from the second sentence of that same paragraph that most jazz prior to the 1920s was played by musicians who couldn't read music, and who consequently had to keep their improvisations fairly simple. That is, the structure of early jazz was simple, but in Henderson's arrangements the structure was raised to a grander scale and more sophisticated levels of complexity and structure. It can therefore be inferred that Henderson was inspired by the desire to go beyond the simple structure of early jazz, to go beyond its structural limitations. Therefore, choice (D) is correct. Choice (A) is a strong distracter. Armstrong is mentioned in the passage as the other key figure in jazz of the 1920s. But whether Henderson admired Armstrong or not is never discussed, so you can't infer that Henderson's innovations were inspired by his admiration for Armstrong.
Choice (B) reflects the author's remark, in the third sentence of paragraph 2, that jazz attained international recognition in the 1920s. This choice distorts that point in suggesting that Henderson hungered for international recognition. There's simply no evidence for this in the passage, so (B) is wrong. Choice (C) is correct in suggesting that one of Henderson's innovations was in the application of jazz to the big band setting. A problem with choice C is that the public's preference for big bands over small combos did not become apparent until a decade after Henderson's contribution ­ in the 1930s, during the Swing Era. Another problem with this choice is the implication that Henderson merely exploited the realization that the public liked the big band sound. The author gives only one reason why Henderson was drawn to large bands ­ this is in the sixth sentence of paragraph 2: Henderson was drawn to large bands because, with his training in music theory, he "foresaw the orchestral possibilities of jazz played by a larger band."



"Bebop lives!" cries the newest generation of jazz players. During the 1980s, musicians like Wynton Marsalis revived public interest in bebop, the speedy, angular music that first bubbled up out of Harlem in the early 1940s, changing the face of jazz. That Marsalis and others thought of themselves as celebrating and preserving a noble tradition is, in one sense, inevitable. After the excesses of experimental or "free" jazz in the 1960s and the electronic jazz-rock "fusion" of the 70s, it is hardly surprising that people should hearken back to a time when jazz was "purer", perhaps even at the apex of its development. But the recent enthusiasm for bebop is also ironic in light of the music's initial public reception.
In its infancy, during the first two decades of the 20th century, jazz was played by small groups of musicians improvising variations on blues tunes and popular songs. Most of the musicians were unable to read music, and their improvisations were fairly rudimentary. Nevertheless, jazz attained international recognition in the 1920s. Two of the people most responsible for its rise in popularity were Louis Armstrong, the first great jazz soloist, and Fletcher Henderson, leader of the first great jazz band. Armstrong, with his buoyant personality and virtuosic technical skills, greatly expanded the creative range and importance of the soloist in jazz. Henderson, a pianist with extensive training in music theory, foresaw the orchestral possibilities of jazz played by a larger band. He wrote out arrangements of songs for his band members that preserved the spirit of jazz, while at the same time giving soloists a more structured musical background upon which to shape their solo improvisations. In the 1930s, jazz moved further into the mainstream with the advent of the Swing Era. Big bands in the Henderson mold, led by musicians like Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, achieved unprecedented popularity with jazz-oriented "swing" music that was eminently danceable.
Against this musical backdrop, bebop arrived on the scene. Like other modernist movements in art and literature, bebop music represented a departure from tradition in both form and content, and was met with initial hostility. Bebop tempos were unusually fast, with the soloist often playing at double time to the backing musicians. The rhythms were tricky and complex, the melodies intricate and frequently dissonant, involving chord changes and notes not previously heard in jazz. Before bebop, jazz players had improvised on popular songs such as those produced by Tin-Pan Alley, but bebop tunes were often originals with which jazz audiences were unfamiliar.
Played mainly by small combos rather than big bands, bebop was not danceable; it demanded intellectual concentration. Soon, jazz began to lose its hold on the popular audience, which found the new music disconcerting. Compounding public alienation was the fact that bebop seemed to have arrived on the scene in a completely mature state of development, without that early phase of experimentation that typifies so many movements in the course of Western music. This was as much the result of an accident of history as anything else. The early development of bebop occurred during a three-year ban on recording in this country made necessary by the petrol and vinyl shortages of World War II). By the time the ban was lifted, and the first bebop records were made, the new music seemed to have sprung fully-formed like Athena from the forehead of Zeus. And though a small core of enthusiasts would continue to worship bebop pioneers like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, many bebop musicians were never able to gain acceptance with any audience and went on to lead lives of obscurity and deprivation.
According to the passage, all of the following are characteristic of bebop music EXCEPT:

  1. eminently danceable tunes.
  2. dissonant melodies.
  3. complex rhythms.
  4. intellectual complexity.

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

This is a detail question. The correct answer, then, will be an item that the passage did not describe as a characteristic of bebop. Choices (B) and (C), complex rhythms and dissonant melodies, are mentioned in the fourth sentence of paragraph 3 as characteristics of bebop, so they can be eliminated. Choice (D), intellectual complexity, is referred to as a characteristic of bebop in the first sentence of paragraph 4. Remaining is choice (A) as the correct answer. And indeed, the author never states that bebop "was eminently danceable". On the
contrary, in the first sentence of the last paragraph the author states that bebop was not danceable. This choice confuses one of the author's comments regarding swing music. In the last sentence of the second paragraph, the author says that swing was eminently danceable. So choice (A) is characteristic of swing but is certainly not characteristic of bebop, making choice (A) correct.



"Bebop lives!" cries the newest generation of jazz players. During the 1980s, musicians like Wynton Marsalis revived public interest in bebop, the speedy, angular music that first bubbled up out of Harlem in the early 1940s, changing the face of jazz. That Marsalis and others thought of themselves as celebrating and preserving a noble tradition is, in one sense, inevitable. After the excesses of experimental or "free" jazz in the 1960s and the electronic jazz-rock "fusion" of the 70s, it is hardly surprising that people should hearken back to a time when jazz was "purer," perhaps even at the apex of its development. But the recent enthusiasm for bebop is also ironic in light of the music's initial public reception.
In its infancy, during the first two decades of the 20th century, jazz was played by small groups of musicians improvising variations on blues tunes and popular songs. Most of the musicians were unable to read music, and their improvisations were fairly rudimentary. Nevertheless, jazz attained international recognition in the 1920s. Two of the people most responsible for its rise in popularity were Louis Armstrong, the first great jazz soloist, and Fletcher Henderson, leader of the first great jazz band. Armstrong, with his buoyant personality and virtuosic technical skills, greatly expanded the creative range and importance of the soloist in jazz. Henderson, a pianist with extensive training in music theory, foresaw the orchestral possibilities of jazz played by a larger band. He wrote out arrangements of songs for his band members that preserved the spirit of jazz, while at the same time giving soloists a more structured musical background upon which to shape their solo improvisations. In the 1930s, jazz moved further into the mainstream with the advent of the Swing Era. Big bands in the Henderson mold, led by musicians like Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, achieved unprecedented popularity with jazz-oriented "swing" music that was eminently danceable.
Against this musical backdrop, bebop arrived on the scene. Like other modernist movements in art and literature, bebop music represented a departure from tradition in both form and content, and was met with initial hostility. Bebop tempos were unusually fast, with the soloist often playing at double time to the backing musicians. The rhythms were tricky and complex, the melodies intricate and frequently dissonant, involving chord changes and notes not previously heard in jazz. Before bebop, jazz players had improvised on popular songs such as those produced by Tin-Pan Alley, but bebop tunes were often originals with which jazz audiences were unfamiliar.
Played mainly by small combos rather than big bands, bebop was not danceable; it demanded intellectual concentration. Soon, jazz began to lose its hold on the popular audience, which found the new music disconcerting. Compounding public alienation was the fact that bebop seemed to have arrived on the scene in a completely mature state of development, without that early phase of experimentation that typifies so many movements in the course of Western music. This was as much the result of an accident of history as anything else. The early development of bebop occurred during a three-year ban on recording in this country made necessary by the petrol and vinyl shortages of World War II). By the time the ban was lifted, and the first bebop records were made, the new music seemed to have sprung fully-formed like Athena from the forehead of Zeus. And though a small core of enthusiasts would continue to worship bebop pioneers like Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, many bebop musicians were never able to gain acceptance with any audience and went on to lead lives of obscurity and deprivation.
The author suggests that bebop seemed to represent a radical departure from earlier jazz in that it:

  1. grew to maturity before reaching a wide audience.
  2. attracted primarily a youthful audience.
  3. dispensed with written arrangements of songs.
  4. expressed the alienation of the musicians who played it.

Answer(s): A

Explanation:

This requires the reader to draw an inference about why bebop seemed to represent a radical departure from earlier jazz music. The key word here is "seemed." In paragraph 3, the author gives you several reasons why bebop actually was a departure from earlier jazz. But none of these reasons is among the answer choices. In fact, the reason why it seemed so radical a departure is stated in the middle of the final paragraph, and that reason is the recording ban that coincided with bebop's developmental or experimental phase. In its formative stage, bebop was not heard by a wide audience because there were no bebop records. By the time bebop was put on records, it had reached a mature stage of development, and must have seemed, to those hearing it for the first time, as if it had, in the author's words, "sprung fully-formed like Athena from the forehead of Zeus." Choice (A), then, is correct in stating that bebop seemed a radical departure because it grew to maturity before reaching the public. Choice (A) is the correct answer. Choice (B) is incorrect because the author never says that bebop attracted primarily a youthful audience. The only issue mentioned about the audience for bebop in the 1940s is that it was small, representing only a fraction of the audience that had loved jazz in the Swing Era.
Choice (C) is also unsubstantiated. The author says, in the final sentence of paragraph 3, that bebop tunes were "often originals with which audiences were unfamiliar," but never that bebop composers dispensed with arrangements altogether. Despite the author's reference to early bebop musicians leading lives of deprivation and obscurity in the final sentence of the passage, the fact remains that the passage contains no mention of the alienation of these musicians, and certainly does not suggest its expression as a reason bebop seemed radically different. Thus, Choice (D) is incorrect.



"Bebop lives!" cries the newest generation of jazz players. During the 1980s, musicians like Wynton Marsalis revived public interest in bebop, the speedy, angular music that first bubbled up out of Harlem in the early 1940s, changing the face of jazz. That Marsalis and others thought of themselves as celebrating and preserving a noble tradition is, in one sense, inevitable. After the excesses of experimental or "free" jazz in the 1960s and the electronic jazz-rock "fusion" of the 70s, it is hardly surprising that people should hearken back to a time when jazz was "purer," perhaps even at the apex of its development. But the recent enthusiasm for bebop is also ironic in light of the music's initial public reception.
In its infancy, during the first two decades of the 20th century, jazz was played by small groups of musicians improvising variations on blues tunes and popular songs. Most of the musicians were unable to read music, and their improvisations were fairly rudimentary. Nevertheless, jazz attained international recognition in the 1920s. Two of the people most responsible for its rise in popularity were Louis Armstrong, the first great jazz soloist, and Fletcher Henderson, leader of the first great jazz band. Armstrong, with his buoyant personality and virtuosic technical skills, greatly expanded the creative range and importance of the soloist in jazz. Henderson, a pianist with extensive training in music theory, foresaw the orchestral possibilities of jazz played by a larger band. He wrote out arrangements of songs for his band members that preserved the spirit of jazz, while at the same time giving soloists a more structured musical background upon which to shape their solo improvisations. In the 1930s, jazz moved further into the mainstream with the advent of the Swing Era. Big bands in the Henderson mold, led by musicians like Benny Goodman, Count Basie and Duke Ellington, achieved unprecedented popularity with jazz-oriented "swing" music that was eminently danceable.
Against this musical backdrop, bebop arrived on the scene. Like other modernist movements in art and literature, bebop music represented a departure from tradition in both form and content, and was met with initial hostility. Bebop tempos were unusually fast, with the soloist often playing at double time to the backing musicians. The rhythms were tricky and complex, the melodies intricate and frequently dissonant, involving chord changes and notes not previously heard in jazz. Before bebop, jazz players had improvised on popular songs such as those produced by Tin-Pan Alley, but bebop tunes were often originals with which jazz audiences were unfamiliar.
Played mainly by small combos rather than big bands, bebop was not danceable; it demanded intellectual concentration. Soon, jazz began to lose its hold on the popular audience, which found the new music disconcerting. Compounding public alienation was the fact that bebop seemed to have arrived on the scene in a completely mature state of development, without that early phase of experimentation that typifies so many movements in the course of Western music. This was as much the result of an accident of history as anything else. The early development of bebop occurred during a three-year ban on recording in this country made necessary by the petrol and vinyl shortages of World War II). By the time the ban was lifted, and the first bebop records were made, the new music seemed to have sprung fully-formed like Athena from the forehead of Zeus. And though a small core of enthusiasts would continue to worship bebop pioneers like Charlie Parker and Dizzy

Gillespie, many bebop musicians were never able to gain acceptance with any audience and went on to lead lives of obscurity and deprivation.
The author mentions Wynton Marsalis and Charlie Parker as:

  1. pioneers of jazz-rock "fusion."
  2. architects of the bebop movement.
  3. Swing Era musicians hostile to bebop.
  4. bebop musicians of different eras.

Answer(s): D

Explanation:

This inquires about the author's reason for mentioning Wynton Marsalis and Charlie Parker. Wynton Marsalis is mentioned in the second sentence of the passage as a musician who, in the 1980s, led the revival of interest in bebop. Charlie Parker, on the other hand, is mentioned in the final sentence of the passage as a "bebop pioneer." The only possible conclusion is that Marsalis and Parker are bebop musicians from different eras, which makes choice (D) correct. Choice (A) is irrelevant and unsubstantiated. The author does not identify any pioneers of jazz-rock "fusion". Choice (B) is incorrect because only Parker was an architect of the bebop movement. Marsalis, playing 40 years later, might be considered an architect of the bebop revival, but not the original movement. Choice (C) is patently false, since Parker and Marsalis were champions of bebop music, not of swing music.



Studies of photosynthesis began in the late eighteenth century. One scientist found that green plants produce a substance (later shown to be oxygen) that supports the flame of a candle in a closed container. Several years later it was discovered that a plant must be exposed to light in order to replenish this flame-sustaining "substance." Soon another discovery showed that the oxygen is formed at the expense of another gas, carbon dioxide.
In 1804, de Saussure conducted experiments revealing that equal volumes of carbon dioxide and oxygen are exchanged between a plant and the air surrounding it. De Saussure determined that the weight gained by a plant grown in a pot equals the sum of the weights of carbon derived from absorbed carbon dioxide and water absorbed through plant roots. Using this information, de Saussure was able to postulate that in photosynthesis carbon dioxide and water combine using energy in the form of light to produce carbohydrates, water, and free oxygen. Much later, in 1845, scientists' increased understanding of concepts of chemical energy led them to perceive that, through photosynthesis, light energy is transformed and stored as chemical energy.
In the twentieth century, studies comparing photosynthesis in green plants and in certain sulfur bacteria yielded important information about the photosynthetic process. Because water is both a reactant and a product in the central reaction, it had long been assumed that the oxygen released by photosynthesis comes from splitting the carbon dioxide molecule. In the 1930s, however, this popular view was decisively altered by the studies of C. B. Van Niel. Van Niel studied sulfur bacteria, which use hydrogen sulfide for photosynthesis in the same way that green plants use water, and produce sulfur instead of oxygen. Van Niel saw that the use of carbon dioxide to form carbohydrates was similar in the two types of organisms. He reasoned that the oxygen produced by green plants must derive from water ­ rather than carbon dioxide, as previously assumed ­ in the same way that the sulfur produced by the bacteria derives from hydrogen sulfide. Van Niel's finding was important because the earlier belief had been that oxygen was split off from carbon dioxide, and that carbon then combined with water to form carbohydrates. The new postulate was that, with green plants, hydrogen is removed from water and then combines with carbon dioxide to form the carbohydrates needed by the organism.
Later, Van Niel's assertions were strongly backed by scientists who used water marked with a radioactive isotope of oxygen in order to follow photosynthetic reactions. When the photosynthetically-produced free oxygen was analyzed, the isotope was found to be present.

Which of the following can be inferred about the scientists discussed in the passage?

  1. They relied on abstract reasoning in the absence of physical data.
  2. They never came to understand the role of light in photosynthesis.
  3. Each contributed to our understanding of the production of oxygen by plants.
  4. They tended to undervalue previous scientific findings.

Answer(s): C

Explanation:

This is an inference question regarding the scientists discussed in the passage. The unnamed eighteenth century scientists in paragraph 1 laid the groundwork for understanding the role of oxygen; de Saussure postulated the production of free oxygen during photosynthesis; Van Niel's conclusions revised our understanding of the actual source of oxygen in the photosynthetic reaction, and his findings were subsequently verified by other scientists. The generalization in choice (C) is thus accurate. Physical data are referred to throughout the passage, in all four paragraphs, so choice (A) is contradicted. Nothing suggests choice (B); the second paragraph makes it clear that de Saussure hypothesized that light energized the photosynthetic process, and then that scientists in 1845 added to our understanding by realizing that light energy is converted to chemical energy. Similarly, choice (D) is implicitly contradicted: all the scientists mentioned apparently benefited from and built on the work of previous scientists.



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