The path a historical novelist has to tread is clearly beset by danger

Passage A

The path a historical novelist has to tread is clearly
beset by dangers. One cannot have medieval characters
using correct period language because no one would
find the speech readable. Similarly, in depicting
(5) the lives of real individuals, authors must invent
dialogue, as well as other details missing from the
historical record; otherwise characters will remain two-
dimensional and never develop. In effect, the creation
o fa good narrative requires the telling of lies.

(10) Nonetheless there is a clear and important
distinction between telling lies and making mistakes. A
lie is intentional and purposeful; a mistake is accidental
and often unforgivable. The spectrum of historical
fiction is therefore not as simple as “accurate
(15) equals good” and “inaccurate equals bad.” It depends
on whether the inaccuracies are constructive lies or
accidental mistakes. Effective lies add to the story;
mistakes detract from it.

Of course, some lies go too far and alienate
(20) the reader. Some are too obvious. But some lying is
necessary, and to get away with it, one has to be both
subtle and convincing. Shakespeare is a good model in
this respect. He distorted the facts freely and knowingly
conflated historical characters in historical plays.
(25) Yet such distortion makes the drama of human lives
meaningful and memorable.

Passage B

As a writer of autobiographical texts, I’m always
astonished at how falsely I remember things, astonished
at how unreliable memory is. And even when I know
(30) amemory is incorrect, part of my brain cleaves to
the wrong, imagined memory. I hold two memories
in my head, and the false one is more vivid and more
emotionally significant to me than the actual one.
Which, then, is the truest memory?

(35) It’s convenient when the actual events adequately
convey the emotional experience, but sometimes they
don’t and the writer has to choose. While I wouldn’t be
so disingenuous as to argue that a false memory is valid
simply because it is vivid, would argue that there must
(40) be a subjective truth to it, an emotional! truth.

Ultimately, lying is all but inescapable for a
writer attempting to create an artistically coherent
autobiography. One reads an autobiography to see how
the writer experienced and evaluates his or her own life,
(45) and a biography to find a more objective view. If false
memories have an emotional power for the person who
creates them, it’s arguably more misleading to omit
them than it is to include them.

My argument grows strained and my tone shrill
(50) because I’m unhappy with the patently illogical and
unethical position that practical experience has led me
to. Nonetheless, the trust a reader brings to reading an
autobiography is a trust in a convincingly told tale, not
the trust one brings to a newspaper article or a history
(55) of Assyria, in which aesthetics are secondary to factual
accuracy. Autobiography dances on the shifting middle
ground between fact and fiction, and different writers
will draw their lines on that ground in different places.

1. Which one of the following is a central topic of each passage?

(A) the obligation to suppress creativity in the interest of factual accuracy in certain literary genres
(B) the critical distinction between intentional lies and unintentional mistakes in literature
(C) the essential role of falsehood in a literary genre that depicts real past events
(D) the impossibility of representing the past accurately in works of literature
(E) the ethical problems posed by the use of fabrication in a literary genre that depicts real past events


2. Passage A, unlike passage B, seeks to advance its argument by

(A) examining one particular example in depth
(B) criticizing the views of opponents
(C) describing the author’s own experiences as a writer
(D) citing a venerated author as support for the claims being made
(E) suggesting that the phenomenon under discussion is ethically questionable


3. Which one of the following is a claim that is advanced by the author of passage B, but not by the author of passage A?

(A) The position that a good narrative about past events requires some falsehood is ultimately unethical.
(B) Though it is often necessary to include lies in certain types of literature, some such lies can be too obvious.
(C) There is a significant difference between intentionally told lies and unintentional mistakes.
(D) The best writers of autobiographical texts tend to be those who are also accomplished writers of fiction.
(E) There is a significant difference between subtle, effective lies and obvious, ineffective lies.


4. Which one of the following most accurately describes how the passages are related to each other?

(A) Passage A describes an approach that passage B rejects.
(B) Passage A outlines a set of general principles that passage B applies to a specific case.
(C) Passage A and passage B describe the same set of particulars but come to opposing conclusions about them.
(D) Passage A and passage B advance arguments that are roughly parallel but apply them to somewhat different contexts.
(E) Passage A and passage B endorse the same principles but arrive at conflicting interpretations of what they mean in practice.


5. Which one of the following is a principle applied to historical fiction in passage A that the author of passage B would be most likely to regard as NOT applicable to the genre of autobiography as well?

(A) A mistake, as opposed to an intentional lie, is often unforgivable.
(B) The creation of a good narrative requires the telling of lies.
(C) Knowingly presenting false details is ultimately unethical.
(D) Lying successfully requires an author to be both subtle and convincing.
(E) Skillful distortion can make the drama of human lives meaningful and memorable.


6. Both authors would be likely to disagree with which one of the following?

(A) The truth of a given description is independent of its emotional vividness.
(B) Unintentional mistakes tend to detract from a story more than intentional lies do.
(C) Most writers usually succeed in presenting their fabrications subtly and convincingly.
(D) The tendency of authors to introduce falsehoods into their narratives increases over time.
(E) Readers expect complete factual accuracy when they read.


7. Which one of the following comes closest to capturing what the author of passage B means to suggest in asking, at the end of the first paragraph, "Which, then, is the truest memory?"

(A) In autobiographical writing, is there ultimately any sense to the concept of truth at all?
(B) Given the unreliable nature of memory, is it possible for autobiographical authors to know whether they are representing facts accurately?
(C) If there are gaps in an autobiographical author's memories, should that author acknowledge the gaps or fill them with plausible fabrications?
(D) Should autobiographical authors concern themselves with the question of what is a "true" representation of events from their lives?
(E) Does truth in autobiographical writing consist in the accurate representation of the facts, or in the accurate representation of subjective experience?