Reading comp PrepTest 116 · Section 1 · Question 20

Passage

Questions 14-21  .        Reader–response theory, a type of literary theory  . that arose in reaction to formalist literary criticism, Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Debate between reader-response theory and formalists; author’s criticism of formalists
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Reader-response theory proponents’ view:
      • The text alone has no meaning and only acquires meaning when readers interpret it; varying interpretations possible (first and second sentences)
    • Formalists’ view:
      • Study only the text; reader-response theory encourages fragmented views (third sentence)
    • Author’s view:
      • More than one theory can show how works acquire meaning, so the formalists’ approach is unnecessarily narrow (last sentence)
    • Author’s attitude: “no theory has a monopoly” (last sentence); “unnecessarily narrow” (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Formalists’ view and author’s rebuttal
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the formalists
      • Formalism rests on rational, objective principles, while reader-response theory lacks standards and is subjective (first sentence)
    • Formalists’ view:
      • Author’s intended meaning may be hidden, but it can and should be found (third sentence)
    • Author’s view:
      • Literary works consist of signs/symbols, but a work is not a map, and criticism needs to make use of reader/text encounters (fourth through last sentences)
    • Author’s attitude: “indeed encoded in various signs and symbols that must be translated” (fourth sentence); “it is not a map” (fourth sentence); “invariably” (fifth sentence); “needed” (last sentence); “rich stock of meanings” (last sentence)

Paragraph 3

  • Paragraph note
    • Author on benefits of reader-response theory
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, and the author's attitude
    • Author’s view:
      • Reader interpretations have occurred long before reader-response theory articulated the position, and such interpretations can bring new depth and valuable interpretations to work (first and second sentences)
      • Although reader-response theory can “unfairly burden literature” with contemporary views, it adds additional insights and leads to “fluid and lively” discourse over old works (third and last sentences)
    • Author’s attitude: “uncover hitherto unnoticed dimensions of the text” (first sentence); “unfairly burdened literature of the past with contemporary ideologies” (third sentence); “legitimate additional insights and understandings continue to emerge” (third sentence); “legitimizes a wide range of perspectives” (last sentence); “fluid and lively forms of discourse” (last sentence)

Main Point: Despite the objection of formalists and the occasional unfair burdening of literature with contemporary morals, reader-response theory encourages important interaction between readers and text, allowing for new depth and lively discussion about the meanings of older works.

Key Lines?

Lines 6-12 - A new approach

Lines 12-17 - The old approach

Lines 17-20 - The author’s opinion on the old approach

Lines 21-24 - Proponents’ view of the old approach

Lines 41-44 - Benefits of the new theory, according to the author

Lines 58-62 - More benefits of the new theory, according to the author

Meta-Structure?

Old Approach/New Approach: The passage opens up by describing an approach to literary criticism that “arose in reaction to” another, suggesting that the passage is going to fall into the Old Approach/New Approach Meta-Structure. Throughout the rest of the passage, the downsides of the old approach are discussed (Lines 18-20; Line 35), and the benefits of the new approach are raised (Paragraph 3). In such a passage, the author’s opinion of the new approach generally constitutes the main point. Here, it’s important to note that the author makes some concessions to the argument against the new approach (see discussion below), so that needs to be reflected in the main point. However, the discussion of the benefits of the new approach shows that the author is largely in favor of it, leading to the main point we summarized above.

Last Thoughts?

It’s important to note that the author doesn’t argue in favor of reader-response theory at the end of Paragraph 1, but rather against the constraints of the formalists’ approach. The author could easily have followed that up by noting that reader-response theory is problematic and a third approach —or a combination of the first two — is needed. It’s not until the end of Paragraph 2, where the author calls for a method that incorporates the views of readers, that we can associate the author with the reader-response movement.

Question prompt

The author's reference to Remaining source text redacted.
Why the credited answer is right

Credited answer: B

The notes below walk through why it fits the stem and how to eliminate the rest.

Question Type

Humanities

Strategy Overview

Review the purpose of the paragraph including Line 33, then use that and the immediate context around the line to define its purpose

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us why the author inserted the discussion of “various signs and symbols” into the second paragraph. Unless a detail conflicts with the paragraph's purpose, the author probably mentioned that detail to advance the paragraph's role. So reviewing the second paragraph’s role, which we hopefully wrote down in the notes on our scratch paper, will generally reveal why the author included that detail.In this case, the note we wrote for the second paragraph is, “Formalists’ view and author’s rebuttal.” Line 33 shows up in the second half of the second paragraph, so the detail in question probably relates to the formalists’ views.In fact, Line 33 shows up in a sentence that starts in Line 32 — the pivot between the formalists’ view and the author’s. And it has a very specific opening phrase — “However, while…” The however tells us that the author is pivoting away from the discussion of the formalists’ views, and the while tells us that the pivot is starting with a concession the author will make to the formalists. The phrase in question is a part of the concession.So the reference to “various signs and symbols” is a concession to the formalists, who argue that the text and the author’s intent are the only things that matter in analyzing a literary work’s meaning. Therefore, the “various signs and symbols” in question must be those formal elements — the text of the work itself — that “must be translated for the work to be understood.” The author then pivots back to the rebuttal: these formal elements are “not a map,” so readers’ interpretations must matter too.So, the phrase in question is meant to highlight that, as the formalists say, the text of the work is important to understanding it. However, the author then argues that it’s not the only thing that matters — the interpretations made by the reader are also important. Let’s find an answer reflecting this purpose.

Answer choices

  1. A
    stress the intricacy and Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this answer choice say that the reference to “various signs and symbols” is a concession to the formalists’ belief that the text of the work is important to understanding the work?

    Nope. The follow-up line references questions raised by complicated literary works (Lines 35-37), but the reference to “various signs and symbols” doesn’t have much to do with those complicated literary works. The author references the complicated literary works to rebut the formaist critics. The author references “various signs and symbols” to make a concession to the formalist critics.

  2. B
    grant that a reader Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) Does this answer choice say that the reference to “various signs and symbols” is a concession to the formalists’ belief that the text of the work is important to understanding the work? 

    Yes! The word “grant” is more or less synonymous with “concede.” Indeed, the author concedes (“while”) that the various signs and symbols in the book are important to understanding it. The phrase “to some degree” also matches the author’s belief that the text is not the only thing that should be considered when trying to understand the work - readers’ interpretations and the surrounding discourse also matter. So, this answer choice accurately conveys the author’s purpose in referencing “various signs and symbols.” We can justifiably select (B) and move on the last question in this passage.

  3. C
    imply that no theory Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this answer choice say that the reference to “various signs and symbols” is a concession to the formalists’ belief that the text of the work is important to understanding the work? 

    This answer can be tempting, as the author does use this sentence to point out that the formalists’ approach doesn’t result in a full interpretation of a text. But the reference to “various signs and symbols” is not part of the author’s rebuttal of the formalist position. It’s used to acknowledge that the formalist position has some merit. Even if this reference was part of the author’s rebuttal, the author is rebutting just the formalist approach in this section of the text, not all theories.

  4. D
    illustrate how a literary Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this answer choice say that the reference to “various signs and symbols” is a concession to the formalists’ belief that the text of the work is important to understanding the work?

    No. Illustrating something generally requires an example or an explanation. In this sentence, the author doesn’t explain what exactly “it is not a map” means. That comes in the following sentences. Rather, the concessionhere is closer to suggesting the way in which a text is like a map — it has “signs and symbols” that need to be interpreted to understand it.

  5. E
    show that an inflexible Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this answer choice say that the reference to “various signs and symbols” is a concession to the formalists’ belief that the text of the work is important to understanding the work?

    Not quite. Of the two approaches listed in the passage, it’s the formalists’ approach that is an inflexible standard of interpretation. And while the author does concede something to them in the sentence referred to in the question stem, the author doesn’t ever concede that their approach provides “constant accuracy.” That would suggest the author thinks it’s the ideal approach!

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 17%
  2. B Credited 67%
  3. C 8%
  4. D 8%
  5. E 1%

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