critical reading--Problemo!!

<p>blah blah blah..but nowadays she often suffered from the lowering pain of believing herself happy when she was not. "who could be miserable in such a place? she asked. Yet, on misty October evenings or on Sundays, when the church bells began, **sensations **she had never known before came over her.</p>

<p>NEXT PARAGRAPH: she sometimes felt better when she went back to see he friends on volunteer street; but it was a long way to go. angel discouraged the visits and her frineds seemed to have changed. either they put out their best china and thought twice...blah blahb albh</p>

<p>Question: the "sensations" might best be described as feelings of</p>

<p>c. dejection and isolation
d. nostalgia and serenity</p>

<p>I picked d. based on the info I recieved in the next paragraph (e.g. it would make sense that she would feel better after visinting her friends, because she was suffering from nostalgia. the serenity comes from the church bells.</p>

<p>The answer, however is C. I can also understand why it is C, based on the info in the first paragraph</p>

<p>My question: When the passage asks you to refer to a word, can you base your answer on info in the next paragraph. Can you define a word based on the context in the paragraph before or after the word is mentioned?</p>

<p>you probably want to base it on the paragraph its in odd to base it on the next paragraph considering it would be off topic to the paragraph it is in if that was the definition</p>

<p>Since this not a specific line reference question where the answer is found within or near those lines, the answer can be found anywhere. So you have to see from the whole passage and as result whatever the passage as a whole conveyed is the answer you should choose. She may have felt nostalgic and serene at one point but maybe dejected and isolated throughout the rest of the passage. As CB puts it, choose the BEST answer.</p>

<p>since the next paragraph says she sometimes felt better… You know it’s not serenity… That’s how I answered it. </p>

<p>I loved this passage it was the first passage where I didn’t miss any. Yay</p>

<p>The answer is going to be consistent with the information both before and after the reference (which is why you have to read “around” the line reference).</p>

<p>You’re going about this question wrong. The woman asks who could be miserable in such a place (implying that it’s a nice place to live). The next sentence sets up a contrast with the word “yet,” indicating that she is not feeling happy. The next paragraph states that “she sometimes felt better when she went back to see he friends on volunteer street; but it was a long way to go.” Again, here are direct text references that show that she’s not happy. She feels lonely in a new place and her friends are rejecting her.</p>

<p>but that also implies nostalgia jamesford, but it is the best answer & i see no signs of serenity, but yes also make sure it makes sense in the context your reading it.</p>

<p>also, I interpreted the whole “church bells” thing and “misty October evenings” as figurtive language for serenity. Does ETS use figurtive language for context questions???</p>