Read the following passage about the development of architectural acoustics, and then match each of the selected words or phrases (in bold) to its primary rhetorical function within the passage.
Prior to Wallace Sabine’s pioneering work at the turn of the twentieth century, architectural acoustics was less a science than a repository of architectural folklore. Designers of concert halls relied on a hodgepodge of superstitious remedies—stretching wires across ceilings or placing empty whiskey jugs beneath platforms—in a desperate bid to coax clear sound from recalcitrant spaces. Sabine, however, approached the problem with clinical rigor, transforming the fleeting, subjective sensation of reverberation into a quantifiable equation. By meticulously tracking how long a sound lingered in a room, he demystified the phenomenon of echo, stripping away the romantic mystique that had long shrouded the field. His formulas did not merely correct acoustic defects; they revolutionized the spatial design of public auditoriums, establishing a new paradigm where sound was no longer an unpredictable guest, but a governed inhabitant.
- "repository of architectural folklore"To characterize the unscientific and traditional nature of pre-Sabine acoustic design practices.
- "desperate bid"To emphasize the futility and lack of systematic control in early attempts to improve room acoustics.
- "clinical rigor"To highlight the objective, precise scientific methodology Sabine introduced.
- "unpredictable guest"To represent, via metaphor, the uncontrollable and erratic behavior of sound in older halls.