PrepTest 126, Section 2, Question 15

Working the answers

• A

  We get no comparison of how often written talk-story has appeared in Chinese versus English, recently or otherwise.

• B

  The author doesn't describe a former scholarly consensus that this was a unique oral tradition. In fact, the final paragraph says several of its forms are common to most oral cultures.

• C

  This is tempting because talk-story does embrace new subject matter and Western forms of discourse. But that doesn't establish the particular combination of oral storytelling traditions C describes. The example we're given is Kingston's written adaptation in English, not a merger of Chinese, Chinese American, and other oral forms. We shouldn't reject C by claiming talk-story never changes; the unsupported step is how C says that change occurs.

• D
  Correct

  Kingston's memory processes sift and reconstruct essential elements, in contrast with a print-oriented culture's emphasis on “precise sequences of words.” That contrast supports D: the story's important elements matter without every retelling preserving exactly the same words.

• E

  The critics have overlooked the connection. That isn't the same as recognizing the connection, examining it, and judging it weak.