16Hit1600
Craft and StructureMediumHow one author would respond to another's claim

Craft and Structure practice question

Text 1 The novel's ending is a failure of nerve: after three hundred pages of ambiguity, the author ties every thread into a neat bow, as if afraid to trust the reader. Text 2 The novel's tidy ending is not a retreat from ambiguity but its final turn. Every thread is tied, yes, but the reader who has been paying attention knows that at least two of those knots are false, and the neatness is the last joke.

Based on the texts, how would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the author of Text 1's claim about the ending?

  1. A. By arguing that the neatness is deliberate and deceptive rather than a loss of nerve.Correct
  2. B. By agreeing that the ending is a failure.
  3. C. By claiming that the novel has no ambiguity.
  4. D. By saying that the ending is untidy.

Answer: A. By arguing that the neatness is deliberate and deceptive rather than a loss of nerve.

Text 2 grants the tidiness but reads it as a trick.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. By agreeing that the ending is a failure.
Text 2 defends the ending.
C. By claiming that the novel has no ambiguity.
Text 2 treats ambiguity as the novel's mode.
D. By saying that the ending is untidy.
Text 2 accepts that the ending is tidy.

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