16Hit1600
Information and IdeasVery hardInference from a subtle description

Information and Ideas practice question

The letters from the front are cheerful without exception, full of football and the weather, and they stop mentioning the names of the men in his section one by one, without ever saying why. ____

Which choice most logically completes the text?

  1. A. The cheerfulness seems to be a screen, and the disappearing names to be the writer's only way of recording losses he would not describe.Correct
  2. B. The writer had no friends in his section.
  3. C. The writer was not at the front.
  4. D. The letters are about football tactics.

Answer: A. The cheerfulness seems to be a screen, and the disappearing names to be the writer's only way of recording losses he would not describe.

Relentless cheer and quietly vanishing names: what is not said.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. The writer had no friends in his section.
He names them until they vanish.
C. The writer was not at the front.
They are 'from the front'.
D. The letters are about football tactics.
Football is the screen, not the subject.

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