1. Which of the following would be the most appropriate title for the passage?E. Virginia Woolf's Novels: Critical Reflections on the Individual and on Society"In her novels, Woolf is
deeply engaged by the questions of how individuals are shaped (or de-formed) by their social environments, how historical forces impinge on people's lives, how class, wealth, and gender help to determine people's fates."
2. In the first paragraph of the passage, the author's attitude toward the literary critics mentioned can best be described asA. Disparaging"But Virginia Woolf was a realistic as well as a poetic novelist, a satirist and social critic as well as a visionary: literary critics' cavalier dismissal of Woolf's social vision
will not withstand scrutiny."
3. It can be inferred from the passage that Woolf chose Chaucer as a literary model because she believed thatD. Chaucer's writing was great, if subtly, effective in influencing the moral attitudes of his readersVirginia Woolf practiced the satirist's art, which involves using subtlety, instead of direct statements . This is described in these lines -
"As a moralist, Woolf works by
indirection, subtly undermining officially accepted mores, mocking, suggesting, calling into question, rather than asserting, advocating, bearing witness:
hers is the satirist's art."
And the following lines indicate that Chaucer followed a
similar method, thus becoming a role model for Virginia Woolf.
As she put it in The Common Reader, "It is safe to say that not a single law has been framed or one stone set upon another
because of anything Chaucer said or wrote; and yet, as we read him, we are absorbing morality at every pore.
"Like Chaucer, Woolf chose to understand as well as to judge, to know her society root and branch—a decision crucial in order
to produce art rather than polemic."
Polemic is straightforward support for a thesis, therefore, here
art refers to the method of indirection and subtlety.
4. It can be inferred from the passage that the most probable reason Woolf realistically described the social setting in the majority of her novels was that sheB. was interested in the effect of a person's social milieu on his or her character and actions"In her novels, Woolf is deeply engaged by the questions of
how individuals are shaped (or de-formed) by their social environments,
how historical forces impinge on people's lives, how class, wealth, and gender help to determine people's fates. Most of her novels are rooted in a realistically rendered social setting and in a precise historical time."
5. Which of the following phrases best expresses the sense of the word "contemplative" as it is used in lines 43-44 of the passage?C. Avoiding the aggressive assertion of the author's perspective to the exclusion of the reader's judgment"Woolf's own social criticism is expressed in the language of
observation rather than in direct commentary since for her, fiction is a contemplative, not an active art. She describes phenomena and provides materials for a judgment about society and social issues: it is the
reader's work to put the observations together and understand the coherent point of view behind them."
In other words, direct commentary is active art. Therefore contemplative must mean avoiding direct commentary, and allowing the reader to make his observations and and come to his own conclusions.
6. The author implies that a major element of the satirist's art is the satirist'sE. refusal to indulge in polemic when presenting social mores to readers for their scrutinyThe following lines describe the indirect method of Virginia Woolf-
"She describes phenomena and provides materials for a judgment about society and social issues: it is the reader's work to put the observations together and understand the coherent point of view behind them."
The satirist's method involves the satirist presenting phenomenon for readers contemplation rather than directly commenting on it.
The satirit's art is also described as working by
indirection, subtly undermining (which suggests an indirect approach), mocking, suggesting and calling into question
rather than rather than asserting, advocating, bearing witness. Later, the author compares Woolf indirect method to Chaucer's, and Chaucer was Woolf's role model, and explains how that helped to
produce art instead of polemic.
Note: A polemic is contentious rhetoric that is intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and undermining of the opposing position.
7.The passage supplies information for answering which of the following questions?B. Does the author believe that Woolf is solely an introspective and visionary novelist?"Virginia Woolf's provocative statement about her intentions in writing Mrs. Dalloway has regularly been ignored by the critics since it highlights an aspect of her literary interests very different from the traditional picture of the "poetic" novelist concerned with examining states of reverie and vision and with following the intricate pathways of individual consciousness."
"But Virginia Woolf was a
realistic as well as a poetic novelist, a satirist and social critic as well as a visionary: literary critics' cavalier dismissal of Woolf's social vision will not withstand scrutiny."
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