<p>as this test has no online explanations... can someone explain these questions to me (I know it's a hassle because you have to read the passages)</p>
<p>BB Test 1 Section 8 (page 421, this is the old BB)</p>
<h1>10. Why isn't it B, self conscious? He was careful of his lies so why weren't they self conscious.</h1>
<h1>11. Why isn't it E, the narrator feels Jerry's behavior is silly? Because it's so insignificant and pointless to lie in africa, wouldn't it be perceived as silly?</h1>
<h1>15. Why isn't it C, they get immense satisfaction from making their guests feel inferior? "to feast on any new stranger" in the context of the passage where its upper class talking to lower class implies that they would "feast" on them by making them feel inferior.. right?</h1>
<p>What does "living vicariously through guests" even mean? ugh</p>
<p>btw any tips on how I should prepare my self for CR? I'm doing kind of badly. feeling pessimistic</p>
<p>BB holder in the house! it’s beat-up. I flipped to 421 and the passage matches up with your question, but I noticed that you said that your questions are from “the old” book. I didn’t think what lies before me could’ve been much older. </p>
<h1>10. OK I can see why you chose B. I narrowed it down to between B and E myself. Line 2-3: “and yet his was not the conventional double life that most White people led in Africa.” Jerry didn’t stretch his lies too far; maybe he “was not imaginative enough to do so.” “Modest calculations” indeed implies that he made a conscious effort to make up lies, but it also means that he consciously moderated the outrageousness of his lies so that he was believed. I used moderated as a verb above, but it means that he scaled his lies to moderate levels. B and E both fit; E is just better because it includes B.</h1>
<ol>
<li><p>It’s not that it’s pointless to lie in Africa, but rather that, as one of the “White people” who always put on masks of a “conventional double life,” no one could challenge him. Lines 24-26: "It becomes impossible ever to go back, since that means facing the truth. In Africa, no one could dispute…"As no one can challenge Jerry’s tales, “his lying is unlikely to have major consequences in Africa,” or at least less likely than it would have been in America, where making “class an issue seems more than snobbery.”</p></li>
<li><p>“this would have made more sense if the Hodgkinsons were bored, dried up people…, but they were not; they were…leading stimulating lives…” I chose D. Other bored, dried up hosts may find strangers as “a source of vitality, [a] diversion-of-the-month.” Anna and Chris, as the author pointed out, did not do that because they lead stimulating lives, and more importantly, “they were in the world.” (meaning in touch with others, even those outside of their social class.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Anyway, those are the choices I would’ve picked. I didn’t bother to look in the back because that might’ve biased my explanations, caused me to adapt my explanations to fit the answer. And that would’ve defeated the purpose. </p>
<p>I actually really liked these two passages; their authors are obviously great writers.</p>
<p>EDIT: I reworded the last sentence of my explanation for 15; the original might’ve been confusing.</p>
<p>Oh then i would’ve gotten that one wrong on a real test. I thought I had made a good case for D. Some questions are just like that, like that blasted envy v appreciated question from Jan. You might remember it.</p>
<p>I’d actually like for someone to explain why it’s E and not D.</p>
<p>Oh I see. Some hosts need the rough-edgedness of members of lower classes to provide the source of vitality. But D is still pretty damn good in my view.</p>
<p>Any other questions so that I can redeem myself?</p>
<p>15) The question basically asks what “to feast on any new stranger” means. In this context it refers to the action of bored hosts who depend on their guests to have fun or to bring vitality into their lives. This means to suggest that some hosts are actually like this: they live vicariously through their guests, which means they take part in their lives for benefit.</p>
<p>It is not (C) because the passage doesn’t talk about hosts who make their guests feel inferior. The phrase “to feast on any new stranger” does not suggest that the stranger feels inferior. It simply suggests that the host takes advantage of the stranger. If a mother who has always wanted to be a singer pushes her daughter into the music career, the daughter would not necessarily feel inferior.</p>
<p>It is not (D) because hosts who “feast on any new stranger” are trying to lead interesting lives because their inherent lives are dull, and that’s it. This does not imply that they are “pretending” to lead more interesting lives. They might as well be admitting that their lives are dull if this is the case. The particular phrase “to feast on any new stranger” does not suggest that the doer is trying to pretend.</p>
<p>hmmmm i thought the phrase could’ve meant hosts acting “hey look, it’s someone from a lower class, let’s show him how interesting our lives are,” while they live their regular ho-hum lives when in one another’s exclusive company.</p>
<p>Also that the Hodgkinsons did not need to pretend anything because they were not bored and dried-up. I don’t think “feast on” can lead us to assume that hosts live vicariously through… but “rough-edgedness itself was entertaining to them as a source of vitality, their d-o-t-m” suggests that.</p>
<p>You are thinking too much. To feast on something is to experience it with gratification (e.g., to feast on the sunset). To experience something is to live through it. Therefore, to live through someone’s life with gratification is to live vicariously through him or her. It’s almost an exact translation. </p>
<p>The narrator is saying that his hosts aren’t the type of hosts who would do something like that. But to even bring it up is to suggest that some hosts are actually like that.</p>
<p>yea I see what you’re saying, but to suggest that every feasting on something = every experiencing of something = every experience is done vicariously is a little weird</p>
</p>