Question

Read the excerpt from A History of the World in 100 Objects. The slit drum began its life in Central Africa, in the region where Sudan and the Congo share a frontier, and it would have been part of the court orchestra of a powerful chief... The flanks of the drum have been carved to different thicknesses, so that a skilled drummer with a traditional drumstick can produce at least two tones and as many as four distinct pitches. How would adding an audio version of what a slit drum sounds like enhance the listener's experience of this part of the text?

A. It would signal to the listener that more important ideas about the slit drum’s history would be coming in the next section.
B. It would emphasize to the listener how different drums and other musical instruments sounded like in the past.
C. It would make the listener more able to feel the same emotions as the people who had heard the drums in the past.
D. It would make it easier for the listener to duplicate the sounds the drums made on his or her own musical instruments.

Answer 1

C. It would make the listener more able to feel the same emotions as the people who had heard the drums in the past.

Answer 2

Answer: I would contend that the right answer is the B) It would emphasize to the listener how different drums and other musical instruments sounded like in the past.

Explanation: Just to elaborate a little on the answer, it can be added that option D should be discarded, since it is clearly irrelevant, particularly because the slit drum from Central Africa cannot be compared to a modern musical instrument, and the goal is not to help the listener replicate the sound, but experience it. In addition, option A can also be discarded, since an audio version should enhance the listener's experience while he or she is in front of the object, not announce what he or she will experience next. Finally, since the excerpt does not mention anything about the emotions that people in the past —the powerful chief and his retinue—felt while listening to the drums, I believe that the audio version is not primarily meant to elicit the same emotions in the listener. The audio version would, therefore, stress how different musical instruments sounded like in the past, since the label is specifically describing how the design of the drum had the potential to produce various tones and pitches.