SAT Critical Reading question

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1

Hi, I’m preparing for the SAT, and while taking some practice tests, I found a question that I could not understand its explanation.

(the passage for the following question can be found on pg. 5 of this link:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-SjC2QWxqXRc1l0SlpmeUs1a1k/view )

  1. The author uses the phrase "the fiction closed tight" (lines 69-70) in order to (A) demonstrate that the endings of the novels were not believable (B) blur the distinction between fictional works and real life (C) indicate how impenetrable some of the novels were (D) criticize the artificiality of Dickens' characters (E) show his unhappiness at having to part with a fictional world

I was pretty confident that the answer was (A). My though process was like the following:
Because the author described the endings the books as “fortune-teller’s fist”, and the author felt that he could not “take such feelings seriously,” I felt that the author couldn’t believe the endings. You know, kinda like when you go to a fortuneteller, and if he says things that seems so concrete or things that seems like they cannot happen (thus sounds like out-of-reality), you cannot easily believe him.

The answer, however, was (E). An answer explanation from a website was:

“…when we go back to line 68, it says, ‘…’ (in this part he just reads the three sentences from 68 to 74 verbatim). And we’re talking about how the story’s end, it’s closed, and there’s something sad about it. So we can choose choice E.”

By the way, this was virtually the only explanation available on the internet.(Yes, I did try to look up explanations for this question for like 20 minutes) Since this test is from 1995, there isn’t any official answer explanation so far as I have found out. Speaking of which, the old tests used before 2005, contrary to what some may believe, isn’t completely useless. While the math section has entirely changed since 2005, the critical reading section is still valuable, except the analogy vocab questions.

I completely do not understand why the answer is (E), not (A). Can anyone explain this to me? Much help will be greatly appreciated. :slight_smile:

2

I did this without reading your answers, and I actually put E right away. Lines 64-68: the author seems to really enjoy Dickinson’s novels. Line 68-70: And it bothered me that I was forced away at the conclusion. So it looks like he seems really disappointed that he had to part with the fictional world, that he was “forced away.”

Nothing about the passage really suggests that the author believes that the endings of the novel were not believable. Additionally, see lines 70-71: the futures of all the major characters neatly resolved. So it seems like he actually does believe that the ending occurred.

Hope this made sense! ^^’

3

Thank you! Your explanation helped me a lot. Please check out my other posts about CR questions that have not been commented yet. :slight_smile: