magoosh填空一道求解答！

123dswdsUID: 3492140

(i)_____ in the 1990s, Swing music has since (ii)_____ in popular venues, returning to its former state of middling popularity.
Blank(i)        Blank(ii)
A Abundant
B Uncommon
C Resurgent
D alighted
E petered out
F burgeoned

Text Explanation
Answers: (C), (E)

According to the sentence, swing music has had a certain arc in popularity. It was once not too popular (‘middling popularity’) but for a moment (‘in the 1990s’) it was popular or (C) resurgent. ‘…has since’ indicates the return to a lesser degree of popularity. (E) petered out, which means to become less, fits the second blank.



FAQ: "Resurgent" means a rising again to prominence. That means the music had once gained its popularity. However, the sentence only states that the whole process is "unpopular, popular, and again unpopular". The sentence does not mention anything about the popularity of the music before 1990s, how can you judge that the peak in 1990s is resurgent?



A: Let's break this sentence down into two pieces.

1. Swing music was ________ in the 90s.
2. Since the 90s, swing music has returned to being mildly popular.

Notice that the second piece is mostly taken from the modifier "returning to its former state of middling popularity"—this is where our most important clue is. That whole clause helps to elaborate on the blank. If swing music returned to "middling popularity", then its popularity was declining ("middling" has a negative connotation).

Also, "returned to its former state" gives three situations.

1. initial state
2. change
3. return to initial state

We know that the return was toward a "middling popularity," so we can infer that swing music was

1. not very popular
2. more popular
3. not very popular again

And we have two time periods in the sentence to associate. The word "since" includes now,


看完答案表示第一空还是不能理解为什么选C不选A。因为答案好像还是没解决resurgent复苏的问题啊。我们说resurgent也就表明之前有过兴盛吧？得是先有一个peak然后第二个peak才叫resurgent。可是句子只说了unpopular popular unpopular三个过程啊。凭什么就说是复苏了呢？abundant不是更合适么？

qwhrp94UID: 3582413

关键词是“former”
也就是说以前曾经存在过

海上钢琴师1900UID: 2379482

看题目也选了AE，同时CE也能解释的通——state 1 middling popularity --> state 2 resurgent in 90's --> state 3 drop to middling popularity，第一空是state 2，第二空是state 3，至于state 3为什么只能用resurgent而不是abundant就不是很明白了

123dswdsUID: 3492140

qwhrp94 发表于 2015-8-22 18:15
关键词是“former”
也就是说以前曾经存在过

former state说的是middling popularity，怎么就会跑到1990s的状态去了呢？former只能说明之前也是middling popularity吧？

123dswdsUID: 3492140

海上钢琴师1900 发表于 2015-8-22 18:41
看题目也选了AE，同时CE也能解释的通——state 1 middling popularity --> state 2 resurgent in 90's -->  ...

我思考的稍微和你有些不一样。一般我们说resurgent得是前面有一个巅峰状态，然后没落了，之后再巅峰，才可称之为resurgent吧？这样的话本题并无指症表明之前有巅峰状态啊，只知道之前是middling popularity。是吧？这样子resurgent还能make sense吗？