PrepTest 129, Section 4, Question 19
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)
A central purpose of each(3 more words not shown)
- Adescribe the primary(4 more words not shown)
- Bidentify some of(6 more words not shown)
- Cexplain the critical(7 more words not shown)
- Dcompare Cather's novels(8 more words not shown)
- Eexamine the impact(9 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
What are both writers doing? A explains Cather's way of revealing characters through a comparison with Turgenev. B explains her departures from the realistic novel and recommends a way of reading them. So our common-purpose prediction is to describe distinctive features of how she writes.
Working the answers
- A
A discusses Russian writers she admired and the connection with Turgenev. B doesn't explain the primary influences on her writing.
- BCorrect
A identifies indirect characterization, selection, simplification, and mood. B identifies features such as unusual time, ambiguous conclusions, and stylized presentation. Their angles differ, but identifying distinctive characteristics of her work is central to each.
- C
B discusses criticism of her work. A's reference to Wilson supports an account of her technique; it isn't an explanation of her overall critical reception.
- D
B makes this comparison with the realistic novel. A compares Cather with Turgenev, not with that general model.
- E
Russian literature appears in A and French theory in B, so the wording may look familiar. But B uses a theory articulated decades after Cather's 1927 letter to recommend how to interpret her work. It doesn't show that the theory influenced her writing. Nor does each discussion examine both literature and theory as influences. E doesn't state their shared purpose.
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