Practice

You have seen the ways in which the SAT tests you on Punctuation in Writing & Language passages and the way an SAT expert approaches these types of questions.

Use the Kaplan Method for Writing & Language to answer the four questions that accompany the following Writing & Language passage excerpt. Remember to look at the strategic thinking questions that have been laid out for you—some of the answers have been filled in, but you will have to complete the answers to others.

Use your answers to the strategic thinking questions to select the correct answer, just as you will on Test Day.

1. Questions 7-10 are based on the following passage.

2. Bebop Jazz

   For a jazz musician in New York City in the early 1940s, the most interesting place to spend the hours between midnight and dawn was probably a Harlem nightclub called Minton’s. After finishing their jobs at other clubs, young musicians like Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, Thelonious Monk would gather at Minton’s and have jam sessions, informal performances featuring lengthy group and solo improvisations. The all-night sessions resulted in the birth of modern jazz as these African-American artists together forged a new sound, known as bebop.

   Unlike swing, the enormously popular jazz played in the 1930s, bebop was not dance music. It was often blindingly fast, incorporating tricky, irregular rhythms and discordant sounds that jazz audiences had never heard before. Earlier jazz, like practically all of Western music up to that time, used an eight-note scale. Bebop, in contrast, was based on a 12-note scale. Thereby, it opened up vast new harmonic opportunities for musicians.

   The musicians who pioneered bebop shared two common elements: a vision of the new music’s possibilities and astonishing improvisational skill—the ability to play or compose a musical line on the spur of the moment. After all, improvisation, within the context of a group setting, is the essence of jazz, which has been described as the musical experience of the passing moment. Parker, perhaps the greatest instrumental genius jazz has known, was an especially brilliant improviser. He often played twice as fast as the rest of the band, but his solos were always in rhythm and exquisitely shaped, revealing a harmonic imagination that enthralled his listeners.

   Like many revolutions, unfortunately, the bebop movement encountered heavy resistance. Opposition came from older jazz musicians initially, but also, later and more lastingly, from a general public alienated by the music’s complexity and sophistication. Furthermore, due to the government ban on recording that was in effect during the early years of World War II (records were made of vinyl, a petroleum product that was essential to the war effort), the creative ferment that first produced bebop remains largely undocumented today.

Questions	Strategic Thinking
NO CHANGE Charlie Parker; Dizzy Gillespie; Kenny Clarke; and Thelonious Monk Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, and Kenny Clarke and Thelonious Monk Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Clarke, and Thelonious Monk	Step 1: Read the passage and identify the issue Are there any clues suggesting a grammatical issue? Yes, the underlined portion contains a series. What kind of punctuation is used to set off three or more items in a series or list? Commas. Where should these punctuation marks be placed? After every item that precedes the word “and.” Is there anything else a series or list should include? If so, what? A series or list should include the word “and” following the comma before the last item. Step 2: Eliminate answer choices that do not address the issue What answer choice(s) can you eliminate? Step 3: Plug in the remaining answer choices and select the most correct, concise, and relevant one What is the correct answer?
NO CHANGE scale, and thereby opening up scale, opening up scale, thereby opening up	Step 1: Read the passage and identify the issue What punctuation does the underlined segment include? A period. What is the issue? Step 2: Eliminate answer choices that do not address the issue What answer choice(s) can you eliminate? Step 3: Plug in the remaining answer choices and select the most correct, concise, and relevant one What is the correct answer?
NO CHANGE improvisation within the context of a group setting is the essence improvisation within the context of a group setting, is the essence improvisation, within the context of a group setting is the essence	Step 1: Read the passage and identify the issue What punctuation does the underlined segment include? Two commas surrounding the phrase “within the context of a group setting.” What purpose do two commas surrounding a phrase within a sentence serve? Is the information set off by the commas in the underlined portion nonessential? Why or why not? Step 2: Eliminate answer choices that do not address the issue What answer choice(s) can you eliminate? Step 3: Plug in the remaining answer choices and select the most correct, concise, and relevant one What is the correct answer?
NO CHANGE musics musics’ music	Step 1: Read the passage and identify the issue What punctuation does the underlined segment include? What is this type of punctuation used for? Step 2: Eliminate answer choices that do not address the issue What answer choice(s) can you eliminate? Step 3: Plug in the remaining answer choices and select the most correct, concise, and relevant one What is the correct answer?