There is no complete life of Alexandre Dumas. The age has not produced

Question

Source:   GMAT Club Verbal Diagnostic Test #5

There is no complete life of Alexandre Dumas. The age has not produced the intellectual athlete who can gird himself up for that labor. One of the worst books that ever was written, if it can be said to be written, is, I think, the English attempt at a biography of Dumas. Style, grammar, taste, feeling, are all bad. The author does not so much write a life as draw up an indictment. The spirit of his work is grudging, sneering, contemptuous, and pitifully peddling. The great charge is that Dumas was a humbug, that he was not the author of his own books, that his books were written by "collaborators"--above all, by M. Maquet
 
There is no doubt that Dumas had a regular system of collaboration, which he never concealed. But whereas Dumas could turn out books that _live_, whoever his assistants were, could any of his assistants write books that live, without Dumas? He once asked his son to help him; the younger Alexander declined. "It is worth a thousand a year, and you have only to make objections," the sire urged; but the son was not to be tempted. Some excellent novelists of to-day would be much better if they employed a friend to make objections. But, as a rule, the collaborator did much more. Dumas' method, apparently, was first to talk the subject over with his _aide-de-camp_. This is an excellent practice, as ideas are knocked out, like sparks (an elderly illustration!), by the contact of minds. Then the young man probably made researches, put a rough sketch on paper, and supplied Dumas, as it were, with his "brief." Then Dumas took the "brief" and wrote the novel. He gave it life, he gave it the spark (_l'etincelle_); and the story lived and moved   1 
 1. The main point of the passage is to

A. deprecate Dumas and his collaborators
B. to extol that Dumas was a touch artist in writing live-wire novels 
C. to prove the futility of having critics by writers to illustrate that egoism of great writers such as Dumas 
D. to describe the reverence The English literates had for French Literature 
E: to bring to light the dubiousness of English writers

OA: B

OE: 
A: This is antithetical; the author is all praise for Dumas
B: Correct Choice: This is the intention of the author
C: It is to prove the utility rather than the futility 
D: This is the opposite of what happened 
A. This may be a part –intension, but not the main purpose 
 2 
 2. Which of the following statements would the author of the passage not agree with except?

A. Dumas exploited youth to gain fame 
B. The English authors were chivalrous when discussing foreign litterateurs
C. The English biography of Dumas is a masterpiece
D. Dumas could animate and enliven any theme from small spurts of overviews.
E. Dumas was a plagiarist and a copycat

OA: D

OE: We have to in effect find an answer that he will agree with. 
A: The author is pro Dumas
B: This did not happen
C: The English Biography of Dumas was a disaster
D: This is the correct answer 
E: No; not at all. A staunch advocate of Dumas would never accept this 
 3 
 3. What can be inferred from the last line of the passage considering the sentiments expressed in text?

A. Dumas was a dull-wit who depended upon his subordinates for developing a novel 
B. His stories lacked life 
C. That the author is a hard-core champion of Dumas 
D. The finale and finesse created by Dumas were unlively
E. The author was equivocal on Dumas’s performance as a fictioneer

OA: C

OE:
A: No; the author was a champion of the virtues of Dumas 
B: Dumas’ stories lacked full life
C: This is inferable from the way the author keeps heaping praises on Dumas .
D: This is a negative factor, just contrary to what the author intends to put through 
F. The author is categorical and not equivocal reading Dumas’ fictioneering. 
  4 
 4. Which of the following expressions does the author of the text not allude to regarding the biography of Dumas written by an English author?

A. His style 
B. The English author’s focus in his presentation 
C. The English author’s glorification of Dumas
D. The English author’s envy and derision for Dumas 
E. The observations of the author of the text about the English biography of Dumas

OA: C 
OE: We need an answer that does not touch upon some point.

A; Style is mentioned 
B: The focus is touched through the passage. 
C: This is not talked about in the passage; this is the correct choice. 
D. They are referred to 
E: The observations of the author of the text are mentioned

Sajjad1994 · Answer

Official Explanation

1. The main point of the passage is to

Explanation

A:  This is antithetical; the author is all praise for Dumas

B: Correct Choice:  This is the intention of the author

C:  It is to prove the utility rather than the futility

D:  This is the opposite of what happened

A.  This may be a part –intension, but not the main purpose

Answer: B

Lucky1994 · Answer

Hello Experts,

Can you please explain me question 4 and how to reach out to answer of this question?

AndrewN · Answer

Hello,  Lucky1994 . I read the passage cold and answered this question correctly in a little over 2 minutes. Let us take a closer look:

This is a form of an EXCEPT question, so you can take comfort in the fact that there are four justifiable answers from the passage. You just have to find the odd one out, specifically the answer that does  not  follow from the text.

Analysis: I will admit to pausing on this one for a moment. We have to interpret the pronoun here as referring to the English author, rather than the author of the text. The line from the middle of the first paragraph speaks to this exact point:  Style, grammar, taste, feeling, are all bad.  The author of the passage is commenting on the English author's biography of Dumas. Since  style  is mentioned explicitly, the author of the text  does  allude to this  expression , as the question puts it.  Red light.

Analysis: Following the line that I just quoted in the previous analysis, we get more of a railing against the English author's biography:

The author does not so much write a life as draw up an indictment. The spirit of his work is grudging, sneering, contemptuous, and pitifully peddling. The great charge is that Dumas was a humbug, that he was not the author of his own books, that his books were written by "collaborators"--above all, by M. Maquet

No, we do not get the word  focus  laid out for us, but we understand that the English author wrote a disparaging work on Dumas. If one line will not do for you from the above excerpt, then another ought to do just fine ( draw up an indictment... spirit of his work... great charge ). Thus, this is NOT what we are looking for.  Red light.

Analysis: This is a reversal of what we would expect. As mentioned in the previous analysis, the English author clearly did not think highly of Dumas, according to the author of the passage. Since there is no such  glorification of Dumas  by the English author, this answer delivers on the EXCEPT framework of the question.  Green light.

Analysis: Even if you are not necessarily on board with  envy  here, the second part,  derision , is undeniable. If the upper-level vocabulary is throwing you for a loop, then you could mark this as a yellow-light response, but this choice is not as strong as (C), given that the English author clearly did not like Dumas, to put it mildly. If there is firm grounding in the text for even a part of the answer, then that puts the answer on thin ice.  Red light.

Analysis: If you read the first paragraph, then this answer choice sums it up perfectly. The author of the passage offers statements or  observations  about  the English biography of Dumas . It should be hard to blunder into this answer if you understood the content of the first paragraph.  Red light.

I hope that helps. This is not the easiest passage, but if you work to understand the question first, what it is driving at, then the task becomes a lot simpler. Good luck to you in your studies.

- Andrew

VerbalBot · Answer

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There is no complete life of Alexandre Dumas. The age has not produced

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GMAT Reading Comprehension (RC) Questions

There is no complete life of Alexandre Dumas. The age has not produced

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