PrepTest 129, Section 4, Question 13
The following passages are adapted from critical essays(486 more words not shown)
Passage A(229 more words not shown)
Passage B(250 more words not shown)
If the author of passage(21 more words not shown)
- AThough Cather preferred(28 more words not shown)
- BThe critics who(19 more words not shown)
- CA model of(21 more words not shown)
- DCritics who questioned(21 more words not shown)
- ECather's goal of(19 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
A's central concern is how Cather reveals character without directly explaining emotions. B also describes her indirect presentation of character. That's the connection I'd look for: something about B's account that fits A's explanation of showing rather than telling.
What we’re looking for
We still need support from A. A statement about the critics in B doesn't become a view A holds just because it concerns Cather.
Working the answers
- A
A doesn't distinguish this book from most of Cather's other works or discuss how she would classify them. We have no basis for that prediction about her preferences.
- B
A gives us no division between failed experiments and successful novels, let alone evidence about which ones the critics chose to review.
- C
A doesn't evaluate the narrative-versus-novel critical framework. Its discussion of indirect characterization doesn't establish that a narrative-focused approach would produce flawed interpretations.
- D
A doesn't argue that Cather embraced the realistic novel's conventions. It emphasizes indirect portrayal, whereas B lists direct psychological characterization as one of those conventions.
- ECorrect
A links “the thing not named” with selection, simplification, and the indirect expression of emotional reality. Those aims explain why Cather would choose bold, simple, stylized details rather than explain every aspect of a character. This connects B's description of her style to A's account of what that style accomplishes.
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