PrepTest 154, Section 3, Question 13
Passage A The path a historical novelist has(486 more words not shown)
Passage A(209 more words not shown)
Passage B(285 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(28 more words not shown)
- AIn autobiographical writing,(12 more words not shown)
- BGiven the unreliable(17 more words not shown)
- CIf there are(18 more words not shown)
- DShould autobiographical authors(16 more words not shown)
- EDoes truth in(18 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
Put the question back beside the two memories B describes. One matches what actually happened. The other is factually wrong but more vivid and emotionally important. Which gives the truest account of the writer's life: the events themselves, or the experience of those events?
What we’re looking for
That's the question we need to match. B isn't unable to tell which memory is inaccurate—the writer specifically says they know. The difficulty is deciding what kind of truth matters in autobiography.
Working the answers
- A
B isn't discarding the concept of truth as meaningless. The writer distinguishes factual truth from subjective, emotional truth and asks which matters here.
- B
This asks whether the writer can know the facts. In the example, the writer already knows a memory is incorrect. The issue is whether that incorrect memory nevertheless conveys something true about the experience.
- C
Filling gaps is a different problem. Here, two versions are available and conflict; the question is which kind of representation counts as truer, not whether to acknowledge missing information or invent it.
- D
B is already considering what a true representation would be. The question isn't whether writers should concern themselves with that issue; it's how to resolve it.
- ECorrect
This matches the contrast between “the accurate representation of the facts” and “the accurate representation of subjective experience.” A factually false memory can still reveal how someone experienced life. B's question asks us to consider those competing senses of truth.
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