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Craft and StructureHardTwo views on an author's silence

Craft and Structure practice question

Text 1 The novelist published nothing in the last twenty years of her life because she had written herself out; the late notebooks contain only fragments. Text 2 The late notebooks contain fragments because she destroyed the finished drafts. Her letters mention three completed novels she chose not to publish, and her housekeeper described burning manuscripts in the year she died.

How would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the explanation in Text 1?

  1. A. By arguing that the fragmentary notebooks reflect the destruction of finished work, not the absence of it.Correct
  2. B. By agreeing that the novelist had written herself out.
  3. C. By denying that any notebooks survive.
  4. D. By claiming that the novelist published the three novels under another name.

Answer: A. By arguing that the fragmentary notebooks reflect the destruction of finished work, not the absence of it.

Destroyed, not unwritten.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. By agreeing that the novelist had written herself out.
Text 2 rejects this.
C. By denying that any notebooks survive.
Text 2 discusses the notebooks.
D. By claiming that the novelist published the three novels under another name.
Text 2 says she chose not to publish them.

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