Vatsal7794 wrote:
This is a Point at Issue question -- a sub-type of Inference. In Point at Issue questions, the correct answer is one about which the two speakers are committed to disagreeing. That is, a statement about which one person would say "definitely yes" but the other would say "definitely no" (or one would say "definitely red" whereas the other would say "definitely green," or whatever else).
To address some questions above, we're
not asked what statement both speakers would "disagree with." We're asked what they would "disagree about" -- that is, what they do not see eye to eye on.
One other important note is that these questions, as a sub-type of Inference, require a high degree of certainty from their right answers. It is important to confirm your candidate answer by finding specific evidence from each party. That is, go back and find quotes from both people to confirm the disagreement. One person's "yes" against another person's silence is not enough to establish a point at issue.
Turning to this question specifically:
Tony definitely
disagrees with the claim that "human lives are best understood as series of completely disjointed vignettes," given his comment that we "depict human lives accurately by portraying characters whose personalities gradually develop through life experience." Gradual development through experience is certainly not "completely disjointed vignettes."
Raoul, on the other hand, definitely
agrees with the claim that "human lives are best understood as series of completely disjointed vignettes," since, you know, he explicitly says, "Life consists... of a series of completely disjointed vignettes."
Since the two parties are committed to opposing views on this statement, answer A is correct.
Other answers:
B say that "novels and short stories employ the same strategies to depict human lives." Tony definitely
disagrees. Raoul's position is a bit murky, so perhaps he does not really address this at all. But if we read into the statement that "the short story depicts human lives more faithfully than does the novel" then, if anything, Raoul is on the same side as Tony; he similarly
disagrees with the claim that "novels and short stories employ the same strategies to depict human lives." So B is not a point at issue: The two parties agree with one another.
C says that "novels usually depict gradual changes in characters' personalities." Tony definitely
agrees. Raoul doesn't actually really speak to this at all. If anything, we might imagine that he most likely agrees with this statement as well. Either way, it's not a point at issue.
D says that "only short stories are used as novelists' sketch pads." Tony technically doesn't address this. He does say, "A short story is little more than a novelist's sketch pad," but he doesn't say that
only short stories are used in this way. Raoul, for his part, says nothing at all about this. So it's not a point at issue.
E says that "short stories provide glimpses of facts of character that are usually kept hidden." Nobody says anything about this (especially the "usually kept hidden" bit). It's not a point at issue.
A is the only winning option here.