16Hit1600
Information and IdeasVery hardQuotation illustrating a claim about a narrator's technique

Information and Ideas practice question

A critic argues that the memoirist reveals her mother's poverty only through indirect details, never by naming it.

Which quotation from the memoir most effectively illustrates the critic's claim?

  1. A. "My mother turned the collars of our shirts when they frayed, and then turned them back, and I was fourteen before I saw a shirt with only one side to its collar."Correct
  2. B. "We were poor, and my mother worked herself thin to hide it."
  3. C. "My mother was a careful and elegant woman."
  4. D. "Money was never mentioned in our house."

Answer: A. "My mother turned the collars of our shirts when they frayed, and then turned them back, and I was fourteen before I saw a shirt with only one side to its collar."

Collars turned twice: poverty shown, not named.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. "We were poor, and my mother worked herself thin to hide it."
Names it outright.
C. "My mother was a careful and elegant woman."
No poverty shown.
D. "Money was never mentioned in our house."
Names the silence rather than showing the poverty.

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