Reading Comprehension

PT129 · S4 · P3 · Q13 Willa Cather

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The following passages are adapted from critical essays on the American writer Willa Cather (1873–1947).

P1 (A): Cather’s Admiration for Russian Writers & Their Influence

Cather looked up to Russian authors like Turgenev and Tolstoy for their storytelling. She copied their indirect way of showing characters’ emotions through actions rather than telling us directly. Turgenev’s advice was to pick just the right details and not over-explain, and Cather followed this, focusing on what’s typical and revealing.

P2 (A): Connecting Cather to Impressionistic Aesthetics

The author links Turgenev’s “secret knowledge” to Cather’s idea of “the thing not named”—creating feelings on the page without spelling them out. Both writers think art should simplify and select, combining setting, action, and mood to create an emotional effect.

P1 (B): The “Novel” vs. “Narrative” Debate & Modern Theory

Cather herself wasn’t super attached to calling her books “novels.” She liked “narrative” better, which actually lines up with later literary theorists (“narratologists”) who care more about storytelling than traditional novel rules. This approach, the author says, fits Cather’s style well.

P2 (B): Criticisms and Appreciation of Cather’s Impressionistic Approach

Some critics have knocked Cather for not fitting the mold of a classic novelist, complaining her structure is weak or inconclusive. But the author argues these so-called “failures”—like her unusual narrative time, ambiguous endings, and bold, stylized characters—are part of what makes Cather’s style unique, expressing deeper emotional conflicts in her stories.

13.

If the author of passage A were to read passage B, he or she would be most likely to agree with which one of the following?

Though Cather preferred to call
Out of Scope: narrative vs. novel
Passage A never discussed any distinction between narrative and novel. And Passage A never made it seem like Death Comes for the Archbishop was some outlier that stood apart from the rest of Cather's works. So we have no means to support this answer.
1% picked this
The critics who questioned Cather's
Out of Scope: critics' focus
Passage A never talks about critics at all, nor alludes to whether Cather's work was heralded or misunderstood by critics. Passage A never suggested that some of Cather's work ventured in the realm of unsuccessful experimentalism, whereas other works were more aesthetically complete. So we don't have any support for this claim.
2% picked this
A model of criticism that
Out of Scope: novels, not narrative
Passage A never talked about the distinction between novel and narrative. However, since Passage A's characterization of Cather's writing seems to align pretty well with Passage B's, if anything we would presume that Passage A would agree with Passage B's assessment of how Cather's works should be critically evaluated. Passage B says that "a model of criticism which takes as its object narrative rather than the novel seems exactly appropriate to Cather's work, which is the opposite of what this answer is saying.
12% picked this
Critics who questioned Cather's abilities
Out of Scope: embraced conventions
This answer makes it sound like Passage A wants to make a strong case for the idea that Cather was a great novelist, one who very much embraced the conventions of the realistic novel. Passage A never talks about "the realistic novel" at all. And the portrayal we get of Cather in both passages is that she's going against the mainstream. She's a little weird. She's different. She's in a club with Turgenev and Tolstoy. We don't see her embracing conventions.
9% picked this
Correct
Cather's goal of representing the
Why this is right
This answer makes a Causal Claim that we won't necessarily find direct support for in Passage A, but at least Passage A talked about the ideas in this answer choice. The other answer choices all seemed to revolve around this "is she writing novels, or is she writing narrative?" issue that was only found in Passage B. The phrase "bold / simple / stylized in character" comes from the end of Passage B. Passage A tells us that Cather referred to impressionistic aesthetic as "the thing not named", and for her "there is the absolute importance of selection and simplification / art is the fusing of the physical world of settings and actions with the emotional reality of the characters". None of this is actually making the causal claim made in this answer, but it's a reasonable speculation that if A's author were reading passage B, they would be nodding their head in agreement, "Yes, yes ... I agree with all the things you're saying about Cather, and can I just add, 'the thing not named' is the aesthetic goal behind all this." Overall, this correct answer is weirdly unsatisfying because Passage A doesn't really have great support for the idea that Cather preferred bold / stylized characters or landscapes. So this becomes a good reminder that correct answers can be very inadequately supported, as long as they're still the 'best available'. Sometimes it's helpful to remind ourselves that Some Support > No Support. We have at least some scraps of support for this answer, whereas for the others, we had nothing.
Skill tested: Author Opinion · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.
76% picked this

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