June 2007, Passage 1, Question 8
So question eight, question eight is another inference question. It asks us what would be most likely to be true, not what the passage says, but what we could infer, essentially, about the passage. So if this passage had been excerpted from a longer text, which of the following predictions about the near future of US literature would be most likely to appear in this text?
And we need to be careful here, because we have to be able to prove the prediction with something that's said in the passage explicitly. Not just make a prediction that seems likely to us. So answer choice A, the number of writers who write both poetry and fiction will probably continue to grow. Now, this is something that we can prove.
At the beginning of the third paragraph, the passage tells us that the bias against crossing generic boundaries is going away, and that there are many recent writers who are part of a trend. So if the trend is towards crossing, then, sure, the number of writers who write poetry and fiction will probably continue to grow, cuz the trend is trending. So A looks pretty good, let's see why the others are wrong.
So B says, because of the increased interest in mixing genres, the small market for pure lyric poetry will likely shrink even further. Well, I don't know what the market for lyric poetry is. If anything, it seems like it's going to grow. I don't know that it's been shrinking recently from what the author says. So I can't say that it's gonna shrink even further when I don't even know that it's been shrinking, so B is not my answer.
C, narrative poetry will probably come to be regarded as a sub-genre of fiction. I don't know that, I mean, the author says that the narrative poems are clearly poems. I have no idea if people are gonna start classifying poems as fiction. Answer choice D then says, there will probably be a rise in specialization among writers in university writing programs.
Well, that's the opposite of what the passage would say. The passage says that currently, we are very specialized. If anything, the specialization would probably be disappearing, not rising. So answer choice E, writers who continue to work exclusively in poetry or fiction will likely lose their audiences. I don't know that people are gonna turn their backs on pure poetry and pure fiction.
I just know that there's probably gonna be more writers who are choosing to write both, because the trend to separate it is dissolving. So I don't know what's gonna happen with their audiences, answer choice E is not my answer. That means A is my answer, and that is the end of this passage.
Read full transcriptAnd we need to be careful here, because we have to be able to prove the prediction with something that's said in the passage explicitly. Not just make a prediction that seems likely to us. So answer choice A, the number of writers who write both poetry and fiction will probably continue to grow. Now, this is something that we can prove.
At the beginning of the third paragraph, the passage tells us that the bias against crossing generic boundaries is going away, and that there are many recent writers who are part of a trend. So if the trend is towards crossing, then, sure, the number of writers who write poetry and fiction will probably continue to grow, cuz the trend is trending. So A looks pretty good, let's see why the others are wrong.
So B says, because of the increased interest in mixing genres, the small market for pure lyric poetry will likely shrink even further. Well, I don't know what the market for lyric poetry is. If anything, it seems like it's going to grow. I don't know that it's been shrinking recently from what the author says. So I can't say that it's gonna shrink even further when I don't even know that it's been shrinking, so B is not my answer.
C, narrative poetry will probably come to be regarded as a sub-genre of fiction. I don't know that, I mean, the author says that the narrative poems are clearly poems. I have no idea if people are gonna start classifying poems as fiction. Answer choice D then says, there will probably be a rise in specialization among writers in university writing programs.
Well, that's the opposite of what the passage would say. The passage says that currently, we are very specialized. If anything, the specialization would probably be disappearing, not rising. So answer choice E, writers who continue to work exclusively in poetry or fiction will likely lose their audiences. I don't know that people are gonna turn their backs on pure poetry and pure fiction.
I just know that there's probably gonna be more writers who are choosing to write both, because the trend to separate it is dissolving. So I don't know what's gonna happen with their audiences, answer choice E is not my answer. That means A is my answer, and that is the end of this passage.
