#16 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Author's Perspective

[jgabalski]

Can someone please explain why the correct answer is choice C? I incorrectly chose answer B. I think I was intimidated by the word idiosyncratic while doing this question? Even after re-reading the passage I find this to be a challenging question. Thank you.

[Charlie Melman]

Hi J,

This is an extremely difficult question and passage, so don't feel bad about choosing the incorrect answer choice.

They key thing to note here is that "personally remembered stories" refers to the kind of talk-story narratives that Kingston creates. The thematic processes create the stories, but they are not the stories themselves.

Answer choice (C) is correct because it defines talk-story narratives, which are what Kingston uses her thematic processes to create. These narratives are partially idiosyncratic because they're unique—no one will remember a particular story quite like Kingston will, so no narrative will be quite like hers.

Hope this helps!

[LAM]

Hello, I too am having difficulty with this Q. When parsing it out, I figure that 'personally remembered stories' is part of a process. The author says Kingston distinguishes Process A from Process B, and that 'personally remembered stories' are part of Process A essentially. Ok, so with this in mind, I eliminated A because 'personally remembered stories' is not referring to a genre, but a process. I eliminated D quickly because that answer is referring to Process B. 'Personally remembered stories is part of Process A, so D is out. Answer E is from out of left field - no one is talking about 'easily identifiable' anything (except for my wish that the answer choice was more easily identifiable!). Ok, so now I'm left with B and C. B seems right because passage states (paraphrased) 'she distinguishes thematic memory process, which utilizes personally remembered stories (narratives) from Process B which uses something else...' Ok, so B says 'thematically organized personal narrative (stories) of one's own past'. So, if its a thematic process, then one could say that it's a process based on or uses themes. 'thematically organized' basically says your past stories are organized into themes'. seems ok. and please don't tell me that personal narrative doesn't equate to ones own past - if you are remembering it then it somehow is related to you - even if it's a memory of something that happened to someone else, etc. If it's your memory - it's in your past somehow. Now onto answer C - basically says somewhat (partially) peculiar, or unique (idiosyncratic) memories of stories. So, your unique memories of stories. Ok - both B and C seem correct. Can someone make this crystal clear to me??

[Robert Carroll]

LAM,

Imagine I didn't have the Iliad in front of me but wanted to describe a particular scene in it. I've read it before, and I saw that movie Troy, but I have neither memorized, so when I tell the story, I might be getting the order of events wrong, getting the names wrong, or doing something else that doesn't quite match the canonical version of the written text (if there is such a thing - I'm not a Homeric scholar!). So when I tell you what happened, I'm relying on my memory of reading the story and knowing a bit about the general plot. I may fill in details where I forget things. I may leave some things out because I'm not sure about them. It's a story I'm personally remembering, and my relation of that story to you depends on quirks of my personality and memory. Thus, what answer choice (C) says is true - it's a partially idiosyncratic memory of someone else's story. The events didn't happen to me. I'm telling a story about something else. I am not necessarily telling you that my memory is faulty, or relating a narrative of my reading of the book. Instead, I'm telling the story itself, a story in which I don't appear, in a manner which is unique to me.

And this is why answer choice (B) is not correct. Although my memory of the story is based on things that happened to me, those events in my life form no part of the actual narrative I'm telling you. Thus, it's not a personal narrative of my past. You're right that my past experiences shape the narrative, but they shape the telling of it, and don't enter into the story I tell.

As Charlie pointed out, this is a very difficult passage and question. Infamously so, even! I hope my explanation is helpful.

Robert Carroll

[LAM]

Wow Robert. Thank you for explaining it to me in this fashion. So, my gut that personal narratives don't necessarily include stories that happened to you (even though they can be part of your memory) was correct - but it looks as if I was applying that in the wrong direction! So, how does one quickly parse out language that can direct them to the correct answer in such a bind (one where 2 answer choices both look correct)? Under time restraints, it seems that correcting the correct answer would be nearly impossible. Can you offer any advice?

[Robert Carroll]

LAM,

For any answer, no matter the question, you don't want to distort what the answer says. It can't be changed. So the answer must be taken on its own terms. So you must ask yourself what that answer actually means. If you think, "It doesn't quite say this, but it would be nice if it did," you're changing the meaning of the answer.

Look at the context of line 32. It's talking about personally remembered stories. What's personally remembered? The stories, not necessarily the events. Remembering an event that happened to me is different from remembering a story in which I'm a participant (although I can have a situation where both occur! I've been in situations where a friend's story about what happened to us differs greatly from my memory of what happened). It also says that Chinese immigrants were "capable of producing masterpieces." Were those masterpieces always stories of their own lives? Nothing says so, and it seems unlikely they were. Thus, the "narrative of one's own past" language in answer choice (B) is off the mark.

Prephrasing answer choices before you get to the answers should, in most cases, be helpful with this. If you take all the answers from a neutral position, you're drawn to answers that you want to "force" to be right. If, instead, you have a prephrase in mind, you have a "gold standard" of answer that the answer choices have to match, or else you strongly suspect them. This would help here and would help in general.

Robert Carroll

[LAM]

Thank you Robert. As I've been preparing, I have been experiencing increased time and slightly more correct answer choices by understanding what the question is asking and then pre-phrasing.

[danielle23]

Hello,

Can someone explain exactly what this question is looking for please?

I seem to be missing the "inferred" questions on the reading section.

I chose answer choice D because it was stated right after line 32, but this was wrong.

Thanks,

Danielle

[Adam Tyson]

Hey Danielle, I think we may have this question posted under the wrong thread. Question 16 on this RC section is in the third passage, about Kingston and Talk-Story, and not the passage about Purple Loosestrife. I've moved your question to that thread to view further discussion and analysis of this question, and see if that does the trick for you!

[danielle23]

Thank you so much!