PrepTest 126 - Section 2 - Passage 3 - Question 15

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With their recognition of Maxine Hong Kingston as a major literary figure, some critics have suggested that her works have been produced almost . ██ ███████ ██████ ████ ████ ████ █ █████ █████████ ████ ██ ██████ ████████ ███████████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ███████ ████████ ████████ ██ █████ ███ ████ ██ █████████ ███

Critics' perspective · Kingston's work doesn't seem to be based on prior Chinese American influences

Author's perspective · Critics overlook influence of "talk-story" on Kingston's work

Talk-story is a traditional Chinese form of oral narrative

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History of talk-story · Ancient form of storytelling in China, rarely written, brought to U.S. by Chinese immigrants

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Relevance to Kingston · Her literary work includes written adaptations of talk-story

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Kingston's method · Builds narratives using key elements and themes drawn from memory

Contrast this with written storytelling traditions, in which telling a story right means getting the order of words right; Kingston seems more focused on getting the broader "shape" of the story right, rather than on the specific wording

Kingston's perspective · on writing down traditionally oral stories

Writing them down doesn't halt the oral tradition; stories can continue to change over time

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Example of Kingston's work · "China Men" book

Book includes many characteristics of talk-story and can be considered a written form of talk-story

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Spotlight

15.

Which one of the following ███ ██ ████ ██████████ ████████ ████ ███ ████████

In the last ███ ██████ ███████ █████ ██ ██████████ ████ ████████ ██ ███████ ██ █████ ██ ████ ████ ██ ████████

Unsupported comparison. The author doesn’t suggest how often written forms of talk-story have appeared in Chinese. He only talks about Kingston’s written English forms of talk-story.

Until very recently, ████████ ████ ████ ████ ████ ████████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ████████ ███ █ ██████ ████ ██████████

Unsupported. The author doesn’t suggest that scholars’ views of Chinese oral storytelling have changed recently.

Talk-story has developed ██ ███ ██████ ██████ ███████ █ ███████ ██ █████████ ████████ ███████ █████████ ███ █████ ████ ████████████ ██████

Unsupported. When talking about the development of talk-story in the U.S., the author just says that the tradition “embraced new subject matter or new forms of Western discourse.” So talk-story adapted to Western culture. But the author doesn’t suggest that this involved combining different oral storytelling forms. As fas as we know, the only other storytelling form that talk-story has combined with is written storytelling (through Kingston’s writing).

26%

Chinese American talk-story ██████ ████ ██████ █████████ ████ ██ ███ █████████ ███ █████████ ██ ███████ █████████ ██ ██████

Strongly supported. The author says that Kingston’s writing, which is a form of Chinese American talk-story, is distinct from forms of writing that emphasize the retention of precise sequences of words.

63%

The connection between ███████ ███████ ██ ██████████ ████ ███ ██████████ ██ ██████ ██ ████ ███████ ██ ██ ██████ ███████ ███ █████████████

Unsupported. The critics mentioned in the passage don’t even know about the connection between Kingston’s work and the talk-story. They argue that Kingston’s work has no connection to Chinese American storytelling whatsoever.

PrepTest 126 - Section 2 - Passage 3 - Question 15

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