Can someone explain why C is correct and not D for the 4th question, please?

I believe the answer to q. 4 is C and not D because the passage is primarily concerned with discussing how a reader's figment of the author (a subjective creation) affects the way they view the author and how it "ultimately affect(s) our intellectual and emotional relation to what we are reading" (paragraph 4).

I don't think the passage talks about any incongruities between a writer and the reader's perception of them. Perhaps this sentence in paragraph 3, where it says "this figment of the author may coexist with, but should never be mistaken for, the “figure of the author." might've thrown you off. I think this sentence goes back to paragraph 2 where it says "we can never know the person who writes directly through her writing" and "the person who writes never appears to us except as a figment of our imagination."

Hope that helps!

Official Explanation

Question 4

Answer: (C)

(C) is correct because the author’s main purpose is to make a point about how readers imagine and interact with writers ("we can never know the person who writes directly through her writing").

(A) is wrong since a methodology is not mentioned in the passage (a methodology is the way a field of knowledge goes about collecting information).

(B) While the passage does offer up an explanation (that of a “figment”) it doesn’t do so by debunking a finding.

(D) is wrong, because while the passage suggests that there are incongruities between the writer and the reader’s perception of the writer, that is a little too specific for the main point of the passage, which is to offer this idea of a “figment.”

(E) is wrong because while the reader briefly anticipates an objection, this minor qualification is by no means the main purpose of the passage.


FAQ: I was able to narrow it down to option (C) and (D), but I have no idea how to get the right answer after that. Why is it (C)? Why not (D)?

A: It's great that you're able to narrow down correctly like that!

As a general rule, you might think about it like this: how can an answer choice be wrong? This might help you to eliminate wrong answers to find the right answer instead of looking for ways that an answer choice might be right.

In looking for ways for (D) to be wrong, we find that it is contradicted in the third paragraph: "This figment of the author may coexist with, but should never be mistaken for, the 'figure of the author.'" The fact that the reader's image of the author may "coexist with" the true author (the figure) means that there isn't always an incongruity as (D) says. Sometimes, the reader's image of the author is actually true.

Answer choice (D) is just too specific to be the primary purpose. Reread the last paragraph in the passage to see what I mean. How does it relate to the "incongruity" in (D)? The truth is that it does not. This does, however, relate to (C) when it talks about the reader's "intellectual and emotional relation to what we are reading." (C) says that the reader has some kind of relationship with a writer that the passage describes, and that's true: The passage explains how a reader creates a "figment" of the writer, and that's discussed in the whole passage.

When answering a "primary purpose" question, always look out for answer choices that are too specific like this.

Official Explanation

Question 1

Answer: (A)

According to the passage, “I do not mean…attributing qualities…”. Then the author adds, “It is Woolf who makes herself up…”, which lends support to (A).

The idea expressed in (B) can be supported by the passage. That said, it does not answer the question and is thus incorrect.

(C) has a general ring of truth to it. However, nowhere is it supported in the passage.

(D) falls into the same category as (C).

(E) sounds plausible, but is nowhere supported in the passage.


FAQ: Can you explain a bit more why A is better than B?

A: Let's look at option B: The reader can be mistaken in his or her perception of the writer’s inner life.

Does this negate the contention that the reader can assign negative qualities to the writer? No, it just says that the reader can be wrong about his or her perception of the writer. This doesn't have anything to do with assigning negative qualities to the writer.

We can also look at the second paragraph:

Yet however expert we become in deciphering the authorial code, we can never know the person who writes directly through her writing. This is an odder claim than it may initially appear, when you consider that the writer may divulge the most intimate secrets of her inner life through the very things she chooses to write about and by the way she writes about them. I want to make an even odder claim and insist that the person who writes never appears to us except as a figment of our imagination.

So here we learn that the reader can never know the writer even though the writer may give intimate secrets of her inner life. So this is related to option B, but B still doesn't answer the question we're being asked. That's definitely a trap--answer choices will throw in something that is related to the passage but doesn't answer the question. That's definitely something to look out for.

However, A does negate the statement--if the reader doesn't assign qualities at all, then he/she can't assign negative qualities. Only the writer assigns him or herself qualities. So again, although the statement in (B) is supported by the passage, it does not directly respond to what the question is asking.

Official Explanation

Question 3

Answer: (A)

The author already creates an image of him or herself so it does not make sense to say that a reader can arbitrarily ascribe characteristics to the writer. This supports (A).

(B) is wrong because the passage does not talk about readers trying to decipher meanings. For the reader, creating figments is an inevitable part of reading, not something he/she intentionally does.

(C) is tempting because it creates a logical answer to the sentence. However, it does not directly answer the question, and it is not well supported in the passage, as shown by "This figment of the author may coexist with...the 'figure of the author.'"

(D) is not supported anywhere in the passage.

While the passage does talk about the writer projecting a self forward, nowhere does it say that such an effort comes up short. Therefore (E) is incorrect.


FAQ: Why is (C) wrong? The passage says, "What I fabricate is an image of her that has slowly formed in my mind..." This is a distorted image, right?

A: The problem with (C) is that it's not very well supported in the passage. We have a sentence in the passage that conflicts with (C): "This figment of the author may coexist with, but should never be mistaken for, the 'figure of the author.'"

We don't know, exactly, that a "distorted view" comes out of the figment (the "image" fabricated in the sentence you mentioned). We only know that the figment is not the same as knowing the author. The figment might actually be an accurate picture of the writer, but we can't assume they are the same thing. To say that the figment is typically a "distorted view" is too strong. The sentence you point out only describes the process of forming an image of the author.


FAQ: I think (A) is wrong. The Passage says: "I do not mean by this that I am making her up or attributing qualities to her that she may not indeed possess." This is clearly inconsistent.

A: This is definitely a tricky question, because it revolves around three different aspects of a writer: the actual writer as a person, the character of himself/herself which the author creates while writing, and the reader's interpretation of that character (the "figment"). The sentence you quoted, "I do not mean...not indeed possess," says that the reader is not arbitrarily attributing traits to the author. But then the passage continues.

Answer choice (A) is reflected in the next part of the passage: "What I fabricate is an image of her that has slowly formed in my mind—a figment I call it—from the impressions, some more concrete than others, that I collect as I am reading her. This figment of the author may coexist with, but should never be mistaken for, the “figure of the author.”

That is, the reader creates an image based on the author's self-image. And that is not necessarily an accurate picture of the real author.


FAQ: I don't quite understand the meaning of each paragraph. I struggle understanding the passage. Can you help?

A: Happy to help. Here is an outline of the passage:

I. Writers can have a "DNA" that comes from certain characteristics of their writing style and work.

II. However, just because we read an author's work doesn't mean we really know them. In fact, the author we imagine might not even be real ("a figment of our imagination").

III. For example, when I am reading a book by Virginia Woolf, I start imagining things about her based on what she writes about. She purposely writes about certain things in a certain way so that I start creating an image of her in my mind that influences my reading of her work.

IV. Woolf actually advises that you try to "become" the author, but admits that it can be hard to do so.

summary

para1: readers are able to distinguish writing styles of different writers
para 2: though these writing styles doesn't give away about the real life of the writers, but the readers often interpret it as the writer itself
para 3: it is the writers who paint figment of their imagination that is writing the work
para 4: these pigmentation often overpower over our mind, so the best way of reading the book is to take in what important and disregard what's not


A1: A. The writer, through his or her works, is the one who creates a fabricated image of him- or herself. = para 3
A2: B. exercising a significant effect on the way in which the reader engages with the text = para 4
A3: A. the reader conjures up an interpretation of the writer that is not tantamount to the actual writer = para 2its explanation is given in para 3
A4: C. offer a claim regarding how a reader interfaces with a writer = para 4