Q1

[Darabi.Shawn]

I picked E because I was able to line reference it to lines 50.. how was I wrong?

[ohthatpatrick]

Before I answer Main Point questions, I find the "Most Valuable Sentence" in the passage (sometimes you have to point to more than one sentence, but most of the time you can find one sentence that is the most crystallized moment of the author's purpose).

The author's purpose in this passage is to respond to critics to have improperly viewed Tutuola as though he were a novelist. The author, meanwhile, is saying, "You've got it twisted: Tutuola is writing more in the oral folk tradition."

In this passage, I would say the Most Valuable Sentences are lines 11-15 (identifying that the critics are wrong to say he's a novelist)
and lines 27-29 (explaining how critics SHOULD instead think of him).

The correct answer (B), is just a synthesis of these two sentences.

(E) is incorrect because it makes "folktale" the main character of the
passage, and makes Tutuola just an example of folktale.

The main character of the passage is Tutuola, so (E) has the wrong scope/emphasis.

Also, (E) captures none of the conversation about critics misinterpreting Tutuola as a novelist, so (E) gives us nothing to address the first two paragraphs.

By contrast, the language of (B) not only relates to the focus of the first paragraphs, "should be evaluated not as novels", as well as to the focus of the last two paragraphs, "but as unique and inventive folktales".

If you were down to (B) vs. (E), you could ask yourself, "Did the author write this passage in order to recommend HOW we evaluate Tutuola's work or to discuss folktales and use Tutuola as an example of a folktale writer"?

Because of the first two paragraphs, there's more support for the idea that the author's purpose was to clarify the critics' misconception about Tutuola.

== other answers ==

(A) The passage never describes his writing style as 'unique', but more importantly, this answer falls into the TRUE, BUT TOO NARROW category. Was the focus of the passage the fact that he blends together three languages? No, the focus was whether he should be classified as a novelist or a teller of folktales.

(C) The author does NOT want to call Tutuola's works novels.

(D) This answer incorrectly focuses on some debate among critics, and it omits any reference to the author's point of view, that Tutuola should definitely be considered a teller of folktales, not a novelist.

Hope this helps.

[Darabi.Shawn]

Right... I got it now. Duh!!! Looking back now it makes complete sense.

Thank you for that!