PrepTest 132, Section 1, Question 23
Recent criticism has sought to align Sarah Orne(431 more words not shown)
It can be inferred from(20 more words not shown)
- Aadvocating a position(14 more words not shown)
- Bmaking a true(8 more words not shown)
- Cmaking a claim(14 more words not shown)
- Dquestionable, because it(19 more words not shown)
- Ebased on speculation(12 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
The criticism aligns Jewett with the earlier domestic novelists. Our overall reaction should be negative: the author argues that their different purposes matter more than the similarities. Now we need an answer that describes that disagreement accurately.
Working the answers
- A
The author doesn't ultimately endorse the classification as essentially correct. The final sentence tells us to give greater weight to the difference in purpose.
- B
The disagreement isn't merely over the critics' reasons for reaching a true conclusion. The author challenges their way of aligning the writers.
- CCorrect
This adds a useful qualification to our negative prediction. The critics do have some reasonable evidence: both kinds of fiction focus on women and domestic life. That makes the comparison initially plausible. But the author thinks it misses the more important difference between fiction as instruction and fiction as art in itself.
- D
The high-cultural aesthetic is discussed, but it explains Jewett's approach, not a mistake in the critics' reasoning. The author also doesn't condemn that aesthetic for defining fiction's proper goals too narrowly.
- E
There is some reasonable support for the comparison. The opening expressly acknowledges similarities in subject matter. Calling the claim unsupported altogether would erase that concession.
More Author's Opinion questions
Learn the LSAT our way
Our platform drills Author's Opinion questions at your level and adjusts as you improve.