Self-study
The following passages are adapted from critical essays on the American writer Willa Cather (1873–1947).
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P1
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Intro topic ·
Cather influenced by Turgenev
Turgenev's style involved showing emotions through details about characters' behavior and appearance. Writers are like psychologists. But, don't include unnecessary detail.
P2
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Cather's style ·
Similar to Turgenev's
The "thing not named" is the feeling created by the text by not specifically named. Cather and Turgenev focused on fusing the physical world and actions with emotional reality, on establishing a mood.
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P3
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Cather's work ·
Should be viewed as narrative rather than novel
P4
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Some critics ·
Cather's work too fragmented
Cather's style ·
Impressionistic, non-novelistic style
Passage Style
16.
Which one of the following ████ ██████████ ██████ ███ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ██
a
Cather's fiction is ████ ██████████ ██ ████████ ██████ ██ ██████████ ██████ ████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████████████ ██ ███ ██████
This best captures the main point, which is that critics should evaluate Cather’s work as a “narrative,” rather than a “novel.” The author makes this point at
b
Most commentators on ████████ ██████ ████ ██████████ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████████ ██████████ ██ █████████ ██████
Passage B doesn’t comment on “most” (over half) commentators. In addition, (B) doesn’t capture the author’s view about how critics should evaluate Cather’s work. Since (B) isn’t supported, it can’t be the main point.
c
Cather intentionally avoided ███ █████████ █████████████ ████████████████ ████ ██ ███ ███████ ███████ ██ ███ ██████ ███████ ██████
This is too narrow. The main point of Passage B isn’t focused on the specific issue of Cather’s lack of direct psychological characterization. That’s simply one feature of Cather’s technique. Also, it’s not clear that Cather avoided “realistic” psychological characterization. She avoided direct psychological characterization, but she still depicted characters’ psychology. Those depictions could still be realistic (meaning, authentically representing what real people would be likely to feel), even if they were indirect.
d
Cather's impressionistic narratives ██████ ██ ██ █████████ ███████ ███ ███ ███████████ ██ ███████████ ██ ███ ██████
Although Cather “anticipated” narratology, this doesn’t imply that she was an important cause of influence on the development of narratology. “Anticipated” in this context simply means that Cather came before narratology and exhibited elements that narratology would later emphasize. It does not express anything about Cather’s causal impact on narratology. Since (D) isn’t supported, it can’t be the main point.
e
Cather rejected the █████████ ███████████ ██ ███ █████████ █████ ███ ███████ ████████████ ██ ██████████ ███ ██████████ ██ █████████ █████ █████ ██████
It’s not clear that she “sketched their inner lives” — that sounds somewhat like “direct psychological characterization.” In any case, (E) also doesn’t capture the view that we should think of Cather’s works as narratives. The main point of Passage B isn’t what Cather rejected, but rather, that we should view her work in a certain way because she rejected certain techniques.