Cullen

Answer choices

1. A

   Wrong Emphasis: religion8% picked this

   While much of Cullen’s poetry deals with racial issues, in his later work he became less concerned with racial matters and increasingly interested in

   It's fine for us to talk about his later work's drift toward religious focus, but that shouldn't be the main clause of an answer. If the author could only say one thing about Cullen, it would be "his later work was less racial, more religious"? No, it would be stuff that deals with the first two paragraphs, "Cullen used European forms to express himself, sometimes addressing racial concerns". The fact that this answer doesn't mention the European forms means it's leaving out one of the biggest themes of the passage.

   8%
2. B

   Correct83% picked this

   While Cullen used European verse forms and his later poems increasingly addressed religious themes, his poetry never abandoned

   Why this is right

   This improves on (A) by mentioning European verse forms, by putting his later religious stuff into a side-thought rather the main clause, and offering us a main clause that says he always maintained a concern for racial issues. In the 2nd paragraph, Cullen and the author are defending his practice of using European forms while writing about racial issues. In the 3rd paragraph, the author tells us that Cullen started writing more religious poetry, "but not because he felt any less passionately about racial matters".

   Skill tested: Main Point · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   83%
3. C

   Contradicted0% picked this

   Though Cullen used European verse forms, he acknowledged that these forms were not very well suited to treating

   The last three sentences of the 2nd paragraph contradict this. Cullen did not acknowledge that European forms undermined his racial concerns. "Cullen rejected this dichotomy (you can either use Euro forms or talk about racial stuff, not both), maintaining that his interest in (European) romantic poetry was quite compatible with his concern over racial issues".

   0%
4. D

   Too Strong: primary goal1% picked this

   Despite the success of Cullen’s poetry at dealing with racial issues, Cullen’s primary goal was to re-create the atmosphere

   We are never told in the passage that Cullen had one primary goal, and we certainly weren't told that such a goal was "re-creating the atmosphere of the English ballad".

   1%
5. E

   Trap7% picked this

   The religious dimension throughout Cullen’s poetry complemented his focus on racial issues by providing the context within which

   Unsupported Causal Relationship Wrong Emphasis: no "European forms" This is appealing in the sense that it blends Cullen's interests in talking about racial issues and in talking about religious stuff. But this answer leaves out the European forms that play such a central role in the first two paragraphs. And it suggests a causal relationship the passage never talked about, in which Cullen's treatment of religious causes the reader to better understand the context of Cullen's treatment of racial issues.

   7%