Jamess first novels used conventional narrative techniques: explicit

Question

James’s first novels used conventional narrative techniques: explicit characterization, action that related events in distinctly phased sequences, settings firmly outlined and specifically described. But this method gradually gave way to a subtler, more deliberate, more diffuse style of accumulation of minutely discriminated details whose total significance the reader can grasp only by constant attention and sensitive inference. His later novels play down scenes of abrupt and prominent action, and do not so much offer a succession of sharp shocks as slow piecemeal additions of perception. The curtain is not suddenly drawn back from shrouded things, but is slowly moved away.

Such a technique is suited to James’s essential subject, which is not human action itself but the states of mind that produce and are produced by human actions and interactions. James was less interested in what characters do, than in the moral and psychological antecedents, realizations, and consequences which  attend  their doings. This is why he more often speaks of “cases” than of actions. His stories, therefore, grow more and more lengthy while the actions they relate grow simpler and less visible; not because they are crammed with adventitious and secondary events, digressive relief, or supernumerary characters, as overstuffed novels of action are; but because he presents in such exhaustive detail every nuance of his situation. Commonly the interest of a novel is in the variety and excitement of visible actions building up to a climactic event which will settle the outward destinies of characters with storybook promise of permanence. A James novel, however, possesses its characteristic interest in carrying the reader through a rich analysis of the mental adjustments of characters to the realities of their personal situations as they are slowly revealed to them through exploration and chance discovery.    1 
 1. The passage supplies information for answering which of the following questions?

A. Did James originate the so-called psychological novel?
B. Is conventional narrative technique strictly chronological in recounting action?
C. Can novels lacking overtly dramatic incident sustain the reader’s interest?
D. Were James’s later novels more acceptable to the general public than his earlier ones?
E. Is James unique in his predilection for exploring psychological nuances of character?

2  
 2. In which sentence of the passage does the author use figurative language to clarify James’s technique in his later novels?

A. The first sentence (“James’s first novels ... described.”)
B. The second sentence (“But this method ... inference.”)
C. The fourth sentence (“The curtain ... moved away.”)
D. The fifth sentence (“Such a technique ... interactions.”)
E. The sixth sentence (“James was ... doings.”)

3  
 3. In the context in which it appears, “attend” ( Highlighted ) most nearly means

A. take care of
B. watch over
C. pay attention to
D. accompany
E. celebrate

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UfuomaOh · Answer

2. the word curtain is figurative for readers' attention

3. attend means accompany because if the word attend is exchanged for accompany in the sentence it would still drive home the same meaning.

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

1. The passage supplies information for answering which of the following questions?

The author states that the later novels of James play down prominent action. Thus, they lack overtly dramatic incident. However, the author goes on to state that James’s novels do possess interest; they carry the reader through  “a rich analysis of the mental adjustments of the characters to the realities of their personal situations.”  It is this implicitly dramatic psychological revelation that sustains the reader’s interest.

Question A  is unanswerable on the basis of the passage. It is evident that James wrote psychological novels; it is nowhere stated that he originated the genre.

Question B  is unanswerable on the basis of the passage. Although conventional narrative technique relates  “events in distinctly phased sequences,”  clearly separating them, it does not necessarily recount action in strictly chronological order.

Question D  is unanswerable on the basis of the passage. The passage does not deal with the general public’s reaction to James.

Question E  is unanswerable on the basis of the passage. The passage talks of qualities in James as a novelist in terms of their being characteristic, not in terms of their making him unique. 
 
  Answer: C

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

2. In which sentence of the passage does the author use figurative language to clarify James’s technique in his later novels?

In the third sentence the author describes James’s later novel as offering  “slow piecemeal additions of perception.”  To clarify the process, he goes on in sentence four to paint a picture in words, using figurative language. No literal curtain is drawn away here; however, the image of a curtain being slowly drawn away helps the reader develop a feeling for James’s method of psychological revelation.

Answer: C

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

3. In the context in which it appears, “attend” (     Highlighted     ) most nearly means

The word  “attend”  here is used in the sense of  “to accompany or go with as a concurrent circumstance or result.”  People’s actions inevitably involve moral and psychological realizations and consequences; they go with the territory, so to speak. 
 
  Answer: D

Jamess first novels used conventional narrative techniques: explicit

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