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?

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

Answer 1

It would emphasize to the listener how different drums and other musical instruments sounded like in the past.

Hearing the slit drum lets listeners directly perceive its distinct tones and pitches, enhancing understanding of its sonic character and historical sound world (more so than signaling upcoming ideas or teaching how to reproduce it).