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Craft and StructureHardTwo texts on a poet's silence

Craft and Structure practice question

Text 1 The poet's twenty-year silence after her second collection is usually explained by illness. Text 2 Her notebooks from those years contain hundreds of finished poems that she chose not to publish; the silence was a decision, not an incapacity.

Based on the texts, the author of Text 2 would most likely say that Text 1 ____

  1. A. mistakes a choice not to publish for an inability to write.Correct
  2. B. is right that illness stopped the poet writing.
  3. C. overstates the length of the silence.
  4. D. ignores the poet's first collection.

Answer: A. mistakes a choice not to publish for an inability to write.

Hundreds of finished poems: she could write; she chose not to publish.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. is right that illness stopped the poet writing.
Text 2 rejects incapacity.
C. overstates the length of the silence.
The length is not disputed.
D. ignores the poet's first collection.
The first collection is not at issue.

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