Dostoyevsky’s Position on Literature

Answer choices

1. A

   Too Strong: elaborated in detail8% picked this

   Three positions are presented and each is elaborated

   This answer would not seem tempting if we were looking for a last-ingredient match, but it still seems workable. We could say that the last paragraph or two is where Dostoyevsky's position was elaborated in detail. So we'd probably need to consider how well the rest of this answer matches to the rest of the passage. The passage opens by saying "there were two significant and opposing directions in Russian literary criticism", so we get two positions there and one more from Dostoyevsky. The problem, though, is that the first position "that art stood high above the present and the everyday" is not elaborated in detail. In fact, what I just typed is all we know about this first position. So we'd get rid of this because it's inaccurate to say that the 1st position was elaborated in detail. Moreover, it seems to be a poor description of the passage to make it seem, as this answer does, like all three positions are created equal. We should be expecting something more like "here's the radical position, and then here's Dostoyevsky's three-paragraph takedown of that position".

   8%
2. B

   Weak Match14% picked this

   Three positions are presented and the third is differentiated from the first

   This answer is worth keeping at first. The third position is Dostoyevsky's, and it's definitely differentiated from the other two. But it's only differentiated from the 2nd position in detail. The first paragraph has a cursory / brief mention of how Dostoyevsky's position differs from the 1st position. The 1st position says that "art stood high above the present and the everyday" whereas Dostoyevsky thinks that "(everyday) reality is literature's crucial source". If we found nothing better, we could consider this answer, but like (A) this answer isn't appreciating how the 1st position is barely mentioned, and the bulk of the passage is about Dostoyevsky responding to the 2nd position, the one from the radical critics.

   14%
3. C

   Correct73% picked this

   Three positions are presented and the third is differentiated from the

   Why this is right

   As we've covered in the first two answer choices, there are certainly three positions presented (the two opposing directions in Russian literary criticism and Dostoyevsky's position). Paragraphs 2, 3, and 4 are all about differentiating Dostoyevsky's position from the 2nd of the two critical positions, the radical view. There is barely any text differentiating Dostoyevsky's position from the first position, that art stood high above the present and the everyday. There is one sentence differentiating him ("he was a realist who thought reality was literature's crucial source"), but that doesn't count as differentiating him in detail.

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

   73%
4. D

   Bad Last Ingredient4% picked this

   Three positions are presented and the third is shown to be superior to

   The passage ends by describing Dostoyevsky's objections to the radical critics' view, but the author never offers any of her own opinion or evaluation of the relative merits of the three positions. Thus we can't say that she showed Dostoyevsky's position to be superior to the first two.

   4%
5. E

   Bad Last Ingredient1% picked this

   Three positions are presented and the third is shown to be inferior

   The passage ends by describing Dostoyevsky's objections to the radical critics' view, but the author never offers any of her own opinion or evaluation of the relative merits of the three positions. Thus we can't say that she showed Dostoyevsky's position to be inferior to the second view.

   1%