Raymond Antrobus, an accomplished poet and writer of prose, recently released his debut spoken word poetry album, The First Time...
GMAT Craft and Structure : (Structure) Questions
Raymond Antrobus, an accomplished poet and writer of prose, recently released his debut spoken word poetry album, The First Time I Wore Hearing Aids, in collaboration with producer Ian Brennan. The album contains both autobiographical and reflective pieces combining Antrobus's spoken words with Brennan's fragmented audio elements and pieces of music to convey how people who are deaf may experience sound, both its presence and absence. Some critics suggest that the album questions the function of sound in the world, highlighting that the experience of sound is multifaceted.
Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?
Step 1: Decode and Map the Passage
Part A: Passage Analysis Table
| Text from Passage | Analysis |
|---|---|
| 'Raymond Antrobus, an accomplished poet and writer of prose, recently released his debut spoken word poetry album, The First Time I Wore Hearing Aids, in collaboration with producer Ian Brennan.' |
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| 'The album contains both autobiographical and reflective pieces combining Antrobus's spoken words with Brennan's fragmented audio elements and pieces of music to convey how people who are deaf may experience sound, both its presence and absence.' |
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| 'Some critics suggest that the album questions the function of sound in the world, highlighting that the experience of sound is multifaceted.' |
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Part B: Passage Architecture & Core Elements
Main Point: Raymond Antrobus and Ian Brennan created a collaborative spoken word album that uses innovative audio techniques to represent deaf experiences of sound, which critics view as questioning the role of sound itself.
Argument Flow: The text moves from introducing the collaborative project and its creators, to explaining the specific creative methods used to achieve their artistic goal, and finally to presenting how critics have interpreted the finished work.
Step 2: Interpret the Question Precisely
What's being asked? The overall structure of the text - how the information is organized and flows from beginning to end.
What type of answer do we need? A description that captures the text's organizational pattern - what type of information comes first, second, and third.
Any limiting keywords? None specified.
Step 3: Prethink the Answer
- The right answer should capture these key elements
- First, we get an introduction to a collaborative project between two specific people
- Second, we learn about the creative approach and methods they used
- Third, we see how critics responded to or interpreted the final work
- The text follows a clear pattern: introduce the collaboration → explain the artistic approach → provide critical perspective
- Perfectly matches our structure: introduces collaborative project ✓, details the production approach ✓, provides critical response ✓
- 'Collaborative spoken word poetry project' = Antrobus + Brennan album
- 'Details the approach' = combining words with audio elements to convey deaf sound experience
- 'Critique the album received' = critics suggesting it questions sound's function
- Claims text 'distinguishes one poem as being an exemplar' - but passage never singles out individual poems
- Says it offers 'summary of subject matter of whole collection' - but we get method explanation, not content summary
- Says text 'presents biographies of two people' - but we only get minimal background (Antrobus is 'accomplished poet')
- Claims it 'speculates about meaning' - but critics' interpretations are presented as their views, not speculation
- Completely misses the structure of introduction → method → reception
- Says text 'explains the extent of their collaboration on each poem' - but passage discusses overall album approach, not individual poem collaboration
- Claims it provides 'overview of technique used to produce the work' - this is partly right but misses the critical reception element