Read the following passage.
A. Oscar Peterson was born on August 15, 1925, in Little Burgundy, a neighbourhood of Montreal. His father, a porter with the Canadian Pacific Railway, believed in musical education, so each of his children learned the piano. Oscar started at the age of five and also learned the trumpet, but an illness that affected his lungs ended his trumpet playing, and after that he focused on the piano alone. His older sister Daisy was his first teacher. At 14, he won a national talent contest for amateurs, and this led to his own weekly radio show.
B. In 1949, the producer Norman Granz heard Peterson on the radio, playing live from the Alberta Lounge in Montreal, and later became his manager. On September 18 of that year, Granz brought him onto the stage at Carnegie Hall in New York as a surprise guest at a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert. Peterson was 24, and that night began his international career. He later worked with stars such as Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie. Not everyone admired his flawless technique, though. Some felt his playing was too clean to be jazz, and in 1969 a French reviewer wrote that he lacked a deep sense of the blues.
C. Peterson was also a composer. In 1962 he wrote Hymn to Freedom, a piece that people around the world soon took up as an anthem of the civil rights movement; Harriette Hamilton wrote words for it. His Canadiana Suite, from 1963, has eight movements that describe different regions of Canada. Teaching mattered to him too. In 1960 he opened the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto, and in the 1980s he taught at York University, where he became chancellor in 1991.
D. In May 1993, while performing at the Blue Note club in New York, Peterson had a stroke that weakened his left hand. After about 14 months of therapy, he gave his first comeback performance at his daughter's elementary school. In later years, arthritis made him perform less often. He died at his family home in Mississauga, Ontario, on December 23, 2007. Today a statue of him, unveiled in 2010, stands at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and in 2022 the Royal Canadian Mint issued a circulation coin in his honour.
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: Paragraph D says a statue of him, unveiled in 2010, stands at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. A statue is a kind of sculpture, so people in Ottawa can see one of him there.
Passage Reference: Today a statue of him, unveiled in 2010, stands at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, and in 2022 the Royal Canadian Mint issued a circulation coin in his honour.
Tips: Find how people remember him after his death. Several tributes may be listed, so check which one is in Ottawa.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A is about his childhood in Montreal and his first piano lessons. No statue is mentioned.
- B: Paragraph B takes him to Carnegie Hall in New York in 1949, but it describes a concert, not a statue.
- C: Paragraph C lists his compositions and his teaching in Toronto. Ottawa does not appear there.
- E: The last sentence of Paragraph D places a statue of him at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: His older sister Daisy was his first teacher.
Why this is correct: Paragraph A says his older sister Daisy was his first teacher and that at 14 he won a national talent contest. It does not say who encouraged him to enter the contest, so this is not given.
Tips: Daisy and the contest sit in neighbouring sentences. Check whether any sentence joins them.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A names Daisy as his first teacher and reports the contest win. But it never links her to his decision to enter.
- B: Paragraph B begins in 1949 with Norman Granz, years after the contest, and no family member appears in it.
- C: The third paragraph is about the music he wrote and the schools where he taught, not about a contest.
- D: Look at paragraph D: it covers his stroke, his later years and the honours after his death. His family is mentioned only through his daughter's school.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: Oscar started at the age of five and also learned the trumpet, but an illness that affected his lungs ended his trumpet playing, and after that he focused on the piano alone.
Why this is correct: Paragraph A says he learned the piano and the trumpet, but an illness that affected his lungs ended his trumpet playing. The lungs are in the chest, so a chest sickness made him stop one of his two instruments.
Tips: He has more than one health problem in his life. Find the one that made him drop one of 'the two instruments' he was learning.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: The second paragraph is about his big night at Carnegie Hall and what critics thought of his style. There is no illness in it.
- C: The third paragraph talks about his compositions and teaching, not about any instrument he stopped playing.
- D: Notice that paragraph D does describe health problems, a stroke and arthritis. But they came late in life, and he did not give up an instrument.
- E: In paragraph A, the writer explains that a lung illness ended his trumpet playing when he was a boy.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: In 1960 he opened the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto, and in the 1980s he taught at York University, where he became chancellor in 1991.
Why this is correct: Paragraph C says that in 1960 he opened the Advanced School of Contemporary Music in Toronto. To open a school is to set one up.
Tips: Teaching at a school is not the same as starting one. Look for the school he began himself.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A shows him as a pupil, learning from his sister in Montreal. He does not start a school.
- B: Notice that paragraph B is about his first concert in New York and his career on stage.
- D: The fourth paragraph mentions his daughter's elementary school, but he only played a concert there. He did not open it.
- E: The Toronto school he opened in 1960 is named in paragraph C.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: At 14, he won a national talent contest for amateurs, and this led to his own weekly radio show.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph A says that at 14 he won a national talent contest for amateurs. Fourteen is a young teenager, amateurs are non-professional players, and national means across the whole country.
Tips: Find his early years as a musician. Check how old he was when he beat other players, and who those players were.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: The second paragraph describes a professional concert when he was 24, not a contest for amateurs.
- C: Look at paragraph C: it covers his work as a composer and teacher as an adult.
- D: His stroke, his comeback and his final years fill paragraph D.
- E: The contest win at 14 is reported near the end of Paragraph A.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: He later worked with stars such as Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie.
Why this is correct: Paragraph B names Ella Fitzgerald as one of the stars he worked with, next to Dizzy Gillespie and Count Basie. It does not compare how often he worked with each one, so this is not given.
Tips: The statement ranks singers. Check whether any place says which singer he recorded with most often.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph ends with his teenage radio show in Montreal, long before he met any American stars.
- B: Ella Fitzgerald appears in Paragraph B in a list of stars he worked with. But nothing there says she was first or most frequent.
- C: The third paragraph names Harriette Hamilton, who wrote words for his hymn, but no singer he recorded with.
- D: Look at paragraph D: it covers his illness, comeback and death, and no other musician is named.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: In 1962 he wrote Hymn to Freedom, a piece that people around the world soon took up as an anthem of the civil rights movement; Harriette Hamilton wrote words for it.
Why this is correct: Paragraph C talks about Hymn to Freedom. People around the world took it up as an anthem of the civil rights movement. An anthem is a song, and the civil rights movement was a fight for equal rights.
Tips: Find where his own compositions are listed. Ask which one came to stand for the fight for equal rights.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph covers the instruments he learned as a child, not music he wrote.
- B: Notice that paragraph B is about his playing and how critics judged it, not about a song linked to a cause.
- D: Look at paragraph D: it names a coin and a statue in his honour, but no song.
- E: Hymn to Freedom and its role in the civil rights movement are both in Paragraph C.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: On September 18 of that year, Granz brought him onto the stage at Carnegie Hall in New York as a surprise guest at a Jazz at the Philharmonic concert.
Why this is correct: In paragraph B, the writer says Granz brought him onto the stage at Carnegie Hall as a surprise guest. A surprise guest is someone the audience does not expect to see.
Tips: New York comes up in two places. Find the concert hall, then check whether the audience knew he was coming.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A stays in Montreal, with his early lessons and his radio show.
- C: The third paragraph is about his compositions and his teaching in Toronto.
- D: Look at paragraph D: it also takes place in New York, at the Blue Note club, but there he had a stroke. Nothing is said about a surprise.
- E: In paragraph B, the writer describes his surprise appearance at Carnegie Hall in 1949.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: Some felt his playing was too clean to be jazz, and in 1969 a French reviewer wrote that he lacked a deep sense of the blues.
Why this is correct: The second paragraph says some felt his playing was too clean to be jazz. 'Too clean' means very neat, so these listeners thought it did not sound like real jazz.
Tips: Find where he is criticised. Check that the complaint is about his style being too perfect.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A deals with his early training. Nobody judges his style there.
- C: Look at paragraph C: it says people around the world took up his hymn. That is praise for his writing, not doubt about his playing.
- D: The fourth paragraph is about how illness affected his playing, not about critics.
- E: The view that he was too clean to be jazz is reported in Paragraph B.
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