Self-study
Mystery stories often feature a brilliant detective and the detective's dull companion. █████ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ██████ ███ ███ █████████ ███████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ████ █████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ ███ ███████ █████████ █████ ███ ████████ ████████ ██ █████████ ███ ████ █████████ █████ ███████ █ ██████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ █████ ████ █████████ ████ ████ ███ ███████ █████████
Summary
Many mystery stories include a genius detective, a “dull” companion, and some clues. The detective uses the clues to solve the mystery, while the companion misinterprets the clues and comes to the wrong solution. In this type of mystery story, the use of the companion character allows readers to solve the mystery, but also diverts them from the true solution.
Strongly Supported Conclusions
The stimulus lets us conclude that:
Some clues in mystery stories can suggest both accurate and inaccurate solutions to the mystery.
Some mystery stories give the reader enough clues to solve the mystery.
Some mystery authors make decisions about what kinds of characters to include as a strategy to allow the reader to participate in solving the mystery.
15.
Which one of the following ██ ████ ████████ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ██████
a
Most mystery stories ███████ █ █████████ █████████ ███ ██████ ███ ███████ █████████ ██ ███ ██████
This is not supported. The stimulus says that mystery stories “often” feature such a detective, but that’s not enough to be certain that “most” mystery stories use this technique.
b
Mystery readers often █████ ███ ███████ ██ █ █████ ██████ ██ ████████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ █████████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ █████████ ██ ████ ██████
This is not supported. The facts above don’t explain how readers go about solving the mystery in a story. All we know is that it’s sometimes possible for them to do so, which does not support concluding that they use this particular strategy.
c
Some mystery stories ████ ███████ ██████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ███████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████
This is strongly supported. The stimulus says that some mystery stories give readers a chance to solve the mystery by including a dull companion. So, the stories must contain enough clues for the reader to infer the solution, or else they wouldn’t actually have a chance.
d
The actions of ███ █████████ █████████ ██ █ ███████ █████ ██████ ██████ ███████ ████ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ███████████ ████ ██████████
This is not supported. We don’t know from the stimulus how much attention readers typically give to either the detective or the companion in mystery stories, so we can’t say if one does or doesn’t divert from the other.
e
The detective's dull █████████ ██ █ ███████ █████ █████████ ████████ ███ ██████████ █████ ████ ██████ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ███████ █████████
This is not supported. The stimulus doesn’t indicate where the clues in mystery novels usually come from, or who uncovers them. We don’t know if it’s the companion, the detective, or someone else.