Which one of the following is most closely analogous to the author's account of the connections among the blues, spir...

shunhe on July 8, 2020

Hi @avif,

Thanks for the question! So we’re being asked here to find the closest analogy to how the author talks about the connections among the blues, spirituals, and certain West African religious practices. This is kind of talked about throughout the passage in that we know that both the blues and spirituals might have the same roots, which are the West African religious practices. But they’re also dissimilar; see lines 5-10, where we’re told that the genres are pretty different.

Now take a look at (C), which talks about two types of trees that should be reclassified because of essential similarities and their recently discovered relationship to another species. It has a couple of issues. Nothing in the passage would be an analogy to the idea of reclassifying the trees, or that the other species was “recently discovered,” and the “essential similarities” is also questionable for being too strongly worded.

(E), on the other hand, about the two species of shrubs, is much closer. The shrubs are superficially unalike (like blues and spirituals), have a similar “leaf structure” (like the deeper similarities between blues and spirituals throughout the passage), and might be linked (like blues and spirituals through the West African religious practices). It’s the best analogy and thus the correct answer.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any other questions that you might have.

avif on July 9, 2020

The reclassified part gets me as the strongest reason why it is wrong. Didn't notice that. Thanks.

shunhe on July 9, 2020

Yup, glad I could help!