LR Question 26 Explanation
QUESTION TEXT: Tony: A short story is little more than a novelist’s sketch…
QUESTION TYPE: Point at Issue
ARGUMENTS: Tony says that only novels can accurately show human lives, because they exist over time.
Raoul believes that short stories show life best. Life does not unfold linearly, but it’s instead a series of unconnected events. Short stories can portray these events.
ANALYSIS: They disagree on how we should understand humans. Do we need a long view (Tony)? Or can we understand someone with a brief glimpse during an important event (Raoul)?
___________
- CORRECT. This restates Raoul’s opinion. Tony completely disagrees: he thinks we can only display someone’s character by showing their gradual evolution through life experience.
- Both of them agree that novels and short stories have different ways to show character.
- Raoul doesn’t disagree with this. He just thinks that the method used by short stories is better.
- They might both agree that novelists have other methods for creating sketches.
- Tony wouldn’t necessarily disagree. He just thinks novels show a more important part of character: gradual evolution with time.
More Resources for Point at Issue Questions
- Intro Course lesson: This intro course lesson covers Point at Issue questions.
- Mastery Seminar lesson: This LR Mastery seminar lesson covers point at issue questions.
The reason I chose answer choice B was because it seemed like they would both disagree with the statement. Could you kindly explain why answer choice B is incorrect a bit more for me? Thanks.
If both people disagree, then they *agree* with each other. You need to pick an answer where the two people have *different* opinions, not the same opinion.
For example one person says yes to the answer, one says no.
Why is B incorrect? Tony specifically says that ONLY novels amd narratives depict human lives by gradually developing through life experiences, while Raoul says BOTH novels and short stories do this (and even though short stories do it better according to Raoul should not make B incorrect).
Raoul’s final sentence clearly says he thinks novels capture human lives better than short stories. So both authors think that novels and short stories are different in how they depict human lives. They disagree about which is better, but they agree that each are different.
Note: This is an old comment but I wanted to clarify the point.