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Information and IdeasVery hardWhat a passage conveys about a character's motive

Information and Ideas practice question

The following text is from a novel. Every autumn Ivo drove three hundred miles to prune the apple trees at the farm he had sold twenty years before. The new owners let him; they thought it was about the trees. It was about the ladder, which his father had made, and which he could not bring himself to ask for and could not bear to leave.

Which choice best describes what the text conveys about why Ivo returns to the farm?

  1. A. He returns for a connection to his father that he cannot openly claim.Correct
  2. B. He returns because the new owners cannot prune the trees.
  3. C. He returns to negotiate buying the farm back.
  4. D. He returns because he enjoys long drives.

Answer: A. He returns for a connection to his father that he cannot openly claim.

'It was about the ladder, which his father had made' — an attachment he can neither ask for nor abandon.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. He returns because the new owners cannot prune the trees.
The owners let him; nothing says they can't prune.
C. He returns to negotiate buying the farm back.
No purchase is mentioned.
D. He returns because he enjoys long drives.
The drive is the cost, not the reason.

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