Comment by mannykannot
6 years ago
Maybe we are looking at different versions of the article (or did you intend to reply to ascar?) In the test quoted at https://www.huffpost.com/entry/standardized-tests-are-so-bad..., Question 35 is this one:
35 The imagery in lines 16 through 19 helps the reader understand –
A the shift in the speaker’s attitude
B the speaker’s unpleasantness
C why the speaker has no friends
D what the speaker thinks of others
Sorry, I thought you meant "next question" in my link, not the article. As to Question 35 in the article: that is testing if you know what "imagery" means. What is imagery? It's using words to convey a sensory impression or feeling. B is the only one that describes a sensory impression or feeling.
> A the shift in the speaker’s attitude
It's not A, because the cited lines contain no reference to any shift. The rest of the poem implies a shift or mood swing, but the cited portion helps you understand the current mood, not the shift.
> B the speaker’s unpleasantness
> C why the speaker has no friends
C assumes facts not in evidence. The poem doesn't say the author has no friends. It says she is in a mood where she could not attract friends. The imagery is directed specifically to the author's unpleasantness. One can speculate that, as a result, she has no friends, but that's not necessarily true. B is the more direct and thus better answer.
> D what the speaker thinks of others
The text is talking about the author, not others. You can speculate what the author thinks about others, but that's not what the question is asking.
Interestingly, it looks like the author actually did get this one wrong.
I think her answers to several of the other questions are a bit obtuse - she's not actually unable to answer the questions, just showing how several answers could potentially relate while ignoring an obvious best. But her response here chooses C as 'obvious', then discusses how B could also apply. Even with a solid rationale for rejecting C, it's not a fantastic sign if a professional author addressing her own work genuinely gets the answer wrong.