Reading comp PrepTest 150 · Section 1 · Question 18

Passage

Questions 13-19  . Passage A  .       In a 1978 lecture titled "The Detective Story,"  . Jorge Luis Borges observes that, Remaining source text redacted.
Passage walkthrough
Passage Summary

Topic: Humanities


Passage A

Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Borges's "special type of reader" in detective fiction
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Definition of the "special type of reader":
      • Confronts literature with suspicions, reads any piece of literature like a detective novel (second sentence)
    • Author's attitude: "insight into the general nature of literature" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Borges: The way books are read determines a book's genre
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Comparisons, according to Borges:
      • The reader's participation in the "aesthetic event" of literature is not external to the literature but instead central to it (second sentence)
      • Readers read books of the same genre in the same way (last sentence)
      • Genre is determined by how readers approach the literary work rather than the work's formal elements (last sentence)

Passage B

Paragraph 1

  • Paragraph note
    • Author: Classifying genres based on the works' themes is difficult, so a better classification system is based on "reading protocols"
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Comparison, according to the author:
      • Classifying genres based on thematic similarities leads to so many "borderline cases," so a more fruitful way to define genres is based on "reading protocols" (first through third sentences)
    • Definition of "reading protocols":
      • The way we read, respond to sentences, and make sense of the text (third sentence)
    • Point of intersection with passage A:
      • The discussion of "reading protocols" recalls passage A's discussion of detective novels' "special kind of reader," the description of the "aesthetic event" between reader and text, and the passage's conclusion
    • Author's attitude: "taxonomic difficulties of such an approach are notorious" (first sentence); "arises so often" (second sentence); "fails to demarcate genres entirely" (second sentence); "more fruitful" (third sentence); "particularly rich" (last sentence)

Paragraph 2

  • Paragraph note
    • Author: Need to determine how literary works promote reading protocols; examples of reading protocols
  • Views, minor Meta-Structures, points of intersection, and the author's attitude
    • Examples of reading protocols, according to the author:
      • When reading poetry, we pay more attention to the sound of words (second sentence)
      • When reading science fiction, we pay special attention to the differences between our world and the "world of the story" (fourth and last sentences)
    • Author's attitude: "Our major critical effort must therefore be" (first sentence); "particular attention" (last sentence)

Main Points?

Passage A: Borges argues that the detective novel highlights how a literary work's genre is determined by how readers approach the work, not by the work's formal characteristics.

Passage B: It's better to classify literary genres based on the "reading protocols" the genre promotes, so critics should explore how genres create and encourage these protocols.

Key Lines?

Passage A:

Paragraph 2, Sentence 3 (P2, S3) - Author's conclusion

Passage B:

P1, S3 - Author's subsidiary conclusion

P2, S1 - Author's main conclusion

Meta-Structure? Relationship Between Passages?

Relationship - Similar Viewpoints: The authors of these two passages have very similar views. The authors share the belief that literary genres are primarily defined by how readers interact with the literary works. The author of passage A, parroting Borges, refers to this interaction as an "aesthetic event" that the reader creates when engaging with literature (PA, P2, S1). On the other hand, passage B's author refers to the interaction between reader and text as "reading protocols." Still, both authors believe that readers will interact with different genres' works in different ways. Passage A provides an example of the suspicion a detective-story reader will bring to the text (PA, P1, S2), while passage B provides examples of how poetry and science-fiction readers will confront texts in those genres (PB, P2, S2-5). Because these authors' views are very similar, we should expect several questions that ask us to identify similarities between the passages and the authors' beliefs.

Last Thoughts?

The questions on comparative passages frequently ask about the authors' positions, so it's critical that we have a firm understanding of each author's beliefs. It's not difficult to discern the opinions of passage B's author. However, many test-takers have trouble unpacking whether passage A's author expresses any beliefs. After all, the argument in passage A is mostly attributed to Borges.

However, a few clues help us determine that the author of passage A agrees with Borges. First, the author expresses a little attitude at the end of the first paragraph. The author says Borges's interest in the detective novel "draws our attention to an insight into the general nature of literature" (PA, P1, S3). By characterizing Borges's claims with a positive term like "insight," the author suggests that they agree with Borges's argument. When the author elaborates on this "insight into the general nature of literature" in the second paragraph, we can infer that the author agrees with these claims. Moreover, even if the author mostly attributes claims made in the second paragraph to Borges, the author drops this attribution in the last sentence: "Thus, what unites works belonging to the same genre is the way those works are read, rather than, say, a set of formal elements found within the works" (PA, P2, S3). By not crediting Borges in this sentence, the author subtly lets us know that they agree with this conclusion.

Question prompt

Borges and the author 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 main point of both passages, use notes or highlighted/underlined text in the passage to recall the views held by Borges and passage B's author, and find the answer that both would agree with

Answer Anticipation

This question asks us to identify the answer choice that both Borges and the author of passage B would agree with. But, it doesn't provide any insight into the topic of the correct answer or where the supporting information might show up in the passages. This means the correct answer is likely to relate back to the passages' main points. As such, we'll need to rely on our big-picture understanding of the passage to answer this question. We should start by reminding ourselves of each passage's main point. We can also review any notes about the views held by Borges or passage B's author or any text we highlighted because it expressed either's opinion. After that, we can head to the answer choices, tabling those that don't align with the main point. For those answer choices that conform to the authors' main points, we'll use our notes and the passage to see if it's correct.

Answer choices

  1. A
    The genre of fiction Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice A is not credited

    (A) Does this seem consistent with the passages' main points or what you remember reading about the views held by Borges or the author of passage B?

    Probably not. In fact, both suggest that the reader plays a critical role in determining a work's genre. Borges claims that the reader's participation is "essential to the literary text" and that the text's genre is ultimately determined by how readers approach the literary work (PA, P2, S2-3). Passage B's author also claims that the "reading protocols" the reader employs determine a work's genre (PB, P1, S3). Even if a fictional work's author influences how the reader interacts with the text, neither Borges nor passage B's author would agree that genre is "fully determined" by the author.

  2. B
    Any science fiction story Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice B matches the stem

    (B) Does this seem consistent with the passages' main points or what you remember reading about the views held by Borges or the author of passage B?

    Perhaps not. This might not seem like a strong contender since detective fiction is a topic unique to passage A, and science fiction is a topic exclusive to passage B. However, this uses weak, easy-to-support language ("could be read"), which distinguishes it from many other answer choices. Experienced test-takers may table this choice and assess the remaining, returning to it once they've eliminated or deferred on the remaining options.

    Once we return to this choice, we can review the passage to determine whether this is supported. Although Borges never mentions science-fiction stories, the author does cite Borges's belief that a detective story reader "might read any narrative as a detective story" (PA, P1, S2). This means that a detective story reader could read a science-fiction narrative as a detective story. And passage B's author says, "We are free to read any text by any reading protocol we wish" (PB, P1, S4). So, this author would also acknowledge that one could read a science-fiction story as if it were a detective story. Therefore, both authors would agree with (B), and we can select it.

  3. C
    Every work of fiction Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice C is not credited

    (C) Does this seem consistent with the passages' main points or what you remember reading about the views held by Borges or the author of passage B?

    Almost certainly not. Experienced test-takers might eliminate this on sight simply due to its hyperbolic, difficult-to-support language ("Every work," "unambiguously"). Moreover, the author of passage B says that "borderline cases" — works that do not fit neatly into one genre — are prevalent (PB, P1, S2), so the author would clearly disagree with this sentiment.

  4. D
    Some rhetorical figures appear Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice D is not credited

    (D) Does this seem consistent with the passages' main points or what you remember reading about the views held by Borges or the author of passage B?

    No. Borges never discusses poetry, so we have no reason to believe that he would agree with this statement. Moreover, the author of passage B doesn't even say that poetry includes rhetorical figures that "never appear in prose fiction." Passage B's author simply mentions that we pay more attention to the sound of words in poetry (PB, P2, S2). This doesn't mean poetry contains elements that do not appear in prose.

  5. E
    A story cannot be Remaining source text redacted.
    Why choice E is not credited

    (E) Does this seem consistent with the passages' main points or what you remember reading about the views held by Borges or the author of passage B?

    Probably not. Neither passage's main point addresses "truly enjoying" a story. In fact, neither passage brings up readers' enjoyment. Therefore, we have no reason to suppose that Borges and the author of passage B would agree with this claim.

What this tests

Question analytics

Based on historical answer selection rates for this question.

Answer choice distribution

  1. A 14%
  2. B Credited 42%
  3. C 23%
  4. D 10%
  5. E 12%

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