PrepTest 101, Section 4, Question 5
Wherever the crime novels of P. D. James(445 more words not shown)
The passage suggests that both(8 more words not shown)
- Atoo much material(9 more words not shown)
- Btoo little characterization(8 more words not shown)
- Ctoo few suspects(3 more words not shown)
- Dtoo simple a(8 more words not shown)
- Etoo convoluted a(6 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Waugh wants James to lay a tricky trail and fool the reader. Oakes wants to get on with catching the killer. Both are asking her to return to the detective story. Our prediction is that they find too much of her material beside the point of solving the crime.
Working the answers
- ACorrect
Waugh's demand for a “tricky trail” and Oakes’s plea to get on with arresting the murderer (paragraph 2) both push back against material that distracts from detection. This captures the complaint they share.
- B
Neither critic says the characters are insufficiently developed. Their complaint concerns attention paid to the crime, not a shortage of characterization.
- C
Neither mentions the number of suspects or says adding suspects would create suspense.
- D
Wanting a tricky trail doesn't establish that both critics find the plot too simple. They want James to focus on the detective story; they haven't given this shared diagnosis of its complexity.
- E
Nor do they say the plot is too complicated to understand. Too little attention to solving the crime is different from an overly convoluted plot.
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