Read the following passage.
A. Inuit throat singing is a vocal game, usually played by two women who stand very close together, facing each other, and sometimes holding each other's shoulders. It is playful but competitive, with a winner and a loser: the game stops when one singer runs out of breath or laughs. Players are still admired for their endurance and for the quality of their sounds. The Inuit have no general term for music, and these games belong to the wider family of traditional Inuit games. The name katajjaq is used most often, although it applies only to Arctic Quebec and the south of Baffin Island.
B. Each game is built from a short motif that is repeated many times. Some of its sounds are voiced and others unvoiced, and some are made while breathing in, others while breathing out. The second singer usually copies the first singer's motif half a beat later, so listeners seem to hear one chain of low sounds and another of high sounds. Without warning, one player may change her motif, and her partner must follow without breaking the rhythm. The result should sound so uniform that the audience cannot make out exactly who does what.
C. Katajjaq has been performed at any time of day and in any season, to put babies to sleep, on returning from the hunt and during long journeys. An Inuit elder, Aulla Tullaugak, has described singing it in her childhood, when there was little to do and eat, as a way to wait for the hunters to come back. Boys learned the games too, but their participation declined once they were old enough to join the adult men on the hunt. Throat singing is practised in all fourteen Inuit communities of Quebec, where women have handed it down from generation to generation.
D. The practice has changed a great deal over the last century. Christian missionaries banned Inuit vocal games, and throat singing nearly died out. In Puvirnituq, an elder asked the community's four remaining throat singers to teach a new generation of women, and a wider resurgence began in the 1980s. In 2001 the Avataq Cultural Institute organized the first Inuit throat singing conference. Quebec later designated throat singing as intangible heritage under its Cultural Heritage Act, the first element to receive that status under the act. Tanya Tagaq, from Cambridge Bay in Nunavut, performs throat singing without a partner. In March 2020, Shina Novalinga began sharing throat singing videos on TikTok.
E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.
Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.
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Correct Answer: D
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph D: Christian missionaries banned Inuit vocal games, and throat singing nearly died out. Missionaries are religious workers, and banning something means forbidding it.
Passage Reference: Christian missionaries banned Inuit vocal games, and throat singing nearly died out.
Tips: Find the part about how the singing changed over time. Ask who tried to stop it, and what happened to the singing after that.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph explains how the game is played and won. It does not mention anyone trying to stop it.
- B: In paragraph B, the writer describes motifs, breathing and rhythm, with no ban of any kind.
- C: Paragraph C lists the occasions for singing and who took part, but no outside group appears.
- E: The ban by Christian missionaries is reported near the start of paragraph D.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: Without warning, one player may change her motif, and her partner must follow without breaking the rhythm.
Why this is correct: In paragraph B, one player may change her motif without warning. Her partner must follow without breaking the rhythm. A motif is the repeated sound pattern of the game.
Tips: Find where the two singers' sounds are described. Check what the second singer has to do when the first one suddenly switches.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: How a game ends and how players are judged are in paragraph A. But it does not say the pattern can change mid-game.
- C: The third paragraph covers when and where the singing happened, not how a game unfolds.
- D: Paragraph D tells how the practice declined and returned, with nothing on changes inside a single game.
- E: A player changing her motif without warning, with the partner following, is described in paragraph B.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: Boys learned the games too, but their participation declined once they were old enough to join the adult men on the hunt.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph C: boys learned the games too. But their participation declined once they were old enough to join the adult men on the hunt. So boys mostly stopped when they began hunting.
Tips: Paragraph A also says who usually plays. Find the paragraph that mentions boys.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: In paragraph A, the game is usually played by two women, but boys are not mentioned at all.
- B: The second paragraph explains sounds and rhythm and never says who stopped singing.
- D: Paragraph D describes a new generation of women learning, not boys leaving the game.
- E: Boys dropping out when they were old enough to hunt is reported in paragraph C.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: In 2001 the Avataq Cultural Institute organized the first Inuit throat singing conference.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph D says the Avataq Cultural Institute organized the first Inuit throat singing conference in 2001. It names the organizer only. Who paid for the meeting is never stated. The Quebec government appears only in the later status decision.
Tips: Organizing an event and paying for it are different. Check which one the paragraph actually says.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A defines the game and the name katajjaq. There is no conference in it.
- B: The sound patterns of a game fill paragraph B. No meeting of singers is part of it.
- C: The third paragraph mentions Quebec's fourteen Inuit communities, but no conference or funding.
- D: The 2001 conference is in paragraph D with Avataq as its organizer. But nobody is said to have paid for it.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: Tanya Tagaq, from Cambridge Bay in Nunavut, performs throat singing without a partner.
Why this is correct: In paragraph D, Tanya Tagaq performs throat singing without a partner. The passage describes throat singing as a game for two. So she sings it alone rather than with a second singer.
Tips: Paragraphs A and B describe two singers. Look for the exception.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph says the game is usually played by two women, which is the opposite of a solo performance.
- B: Paragraph B describes how the second singer copies the first, so it assumes two voices.
- C: In paragraph C, we learn when people sang and who learned, but no solo performer is named.
- E: A singer who performs without a partner, Tanya Tagaq, is named in paragraph D.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: The Inuit have no general term for music, and these games belong to the wider family of traditional Inuit games.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph A: the Inuit have no general term for music. A term is a word, so there is no single Inuit word that covers music as a whole.
Tips: Find where the writer talks about music in general, not about the game itself. Check what it says the Inuit language is missing.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: The second paragraph explains the sounds of the game, but it does not discuss any Inuit words.
- C: Paragraph C gives occasions for singing and names an elder, not a vocabulary point.
- D: In paragraph D, the practice is banned and then revived. Nothing is said about a word for music.
- E: The point that the Inuit have no general term for music is made in paragraph A.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: An Inuit elder, Aulla Tullaugak, has described singing it in her childhood, when there was little to do and eat, as a way to wait for the hunters to come back.
Why this is correct: In paragraph C, an elder sang in childhood as a way to wait for the hunters to come back. Singing also followed the return from the hunt. The text never says the singing was meant to help the men catch more.
Tips: Waiting for someone is not the same as helping them succeed. Check the reason the paragraph gives.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph explains the rules of the game and its name, with no link to hunting.
- B: Paragraph B is about breathing and motifs, not about why the women sang.
- C: Hunters are mentioned in paragraph C, but singing there only helps pass the time while waiting. Helping the hunt succeed is never given as its purpose.
- D: The fourth paragraph is about the decline and revival of the practice, not its purpose during hunts.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: It is playful but competitive, with a winner and a loser: the game stops when one singer runs out of breath or laughs.
Why this is correct: Look at paragraph A: the game stops when one singer runs out of breath or laughs. To giggle is to laugh, and having no air left means running out of breath.
Tips: The passage mentions breathing more than once. Find the rule for when a round ends, and check that it gives both reasons in the statement.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Breathing in and out to make sounds comes up in paragraph B. But it does not say what ends a game.
- C: The third paragraph describes the occasions for singing, not how a round is lost.
- D: Paragraph D covers the history of the practice and modern performers, not the rules for ending.
- E: The rule that a game stops when a singer laughs or runs out of breath is in paragraph A.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: The result should sound so uniform that the audience cannot make out exactly who does what.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph B wants a result so uniform that the audience cannot make out exactly who does what. That is the aim: listeners should not know which singer makes which sound.
Tips: 'Ideally' points to an aim. Find what people hearing the pair are meant to notice, and check that it hides which singer makes each sound.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: In paragraph A, players are admired for the quality of their sounds. But listeners are not meant to be unable to separate them.
- C: Paragraph C tells where and when the singing took place, not how it should sound to an audience.
- D: Modern performers and new platforms are named in paragraph D. But it does not describe what an audience hears.
- E: The aim of a sound so uniform that listeners cannot tell the singers apart closes paragraph B.
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