Question 42 Answer and Explanation _ACT April 2018 Form A09 English Section

Passage III

Pitch Perfect

Even at age seven, Mozart presented audiences with his musical talents, including the ability to identify accurately any note he heard. This aptitude, recognizing notes without aid—is called absolute pitch. People with absolute pitch usually possess related musical skills, such as being able to sing any requested note perfectly.

For decades, the fraction sited in scientific literature has been that only one person per ten thousand has absolute pitch. Such rarity renders absolute pitch so wicked sweet to scientists, many of whom have long suspected that the ability has a genetic basis. Absolute pitch appears to run in families, after all. And in 2009 a team led by geneticist Jane Gitschier found positive correlation between specific chromosomes and absolute pitch.

On the other hand, psychologist Diana Deutsch, in arguing that language is key to a person’s chances of having absolute pitch. Deutsch found that people fluent in “tone languages”一such as Mandarin, where a word conveys different meanings depending on the pitch in which it is spoken—were much more likely to have absolute pitch than speakers of English and other nontone languages. One of Deutsch’s studies paraded that more than 90 percent of music students fluent in a tone language had absolute pitch. Clearly, that’s dramatically higher than the previously mentioned statistic of one person per ten thousand.

Deutsch suggests that children learning tone languages develop the ability to associate pitch with meaning, which is analogous to someone with absolute pitch associating a pitch with the name of the note. In early childhood, as the brain goes through a phase of development during which it is primed to learn language, which can likewise be able to learn absolute pitch. (42) If a child is studying music during this particular period, that further increases his or her chances of developing absolute pitch. As for the dismal chances of learning absolute pitch as an adult, the odds aren’t good: there has never been a proven case of success.

42. At this point, the writer is considering dividing the paragraph into two. Should the writer begin or not begin a new paragraph here, and why?

F. Begin a new paragraph, because the essay shifts at this point from focusing on children and absolute pitch to focusing on adults and absolute pitch.

G. Begin a new paragraph, because it would separate the ideas about language development and absolute pitch form the essay's conclusion.

H. DO NOT begin a new paragraph, because doing so would establish a link between early childhood music education and absolute pitch.

J. DO NOT begin a new paragraph, because doing so would interrupt the discussion of childhood influences on absolute pitch.

Answer and Explanation

Your Answer is

Correct Answer is J

Explanation

The question stem requires that this paragraph be divided into two paragraphs here. The previous article explained that the early childhood brain goes through a specific development stage to help learn absolute pitch. The following explains that if children learn absolute pitch at this stage, it will increase their chances of mastering it. , so it should not be segmented, because the influence of childhood on absolute pitch is explained, and item J is correctly explained.