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ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS Explanation for Correct Answer E : Choice (E) is correct. The claim that the Hodgkinsons "were in the world and led stimulating lives" is meant to indicate that they were not "bored, dried-up people who needed to feast on any new stranger" (lines 44-45). In other words, their lives were already supplied with the kinds of things―news, conversations, discussions, etc.―that might otherwise have had to be provided by interesting guests. Explanation for Incorrect Answer A : Choice (A) is incorrect. Being "in the world" and "leading stimulating lives" are linked by the narrator, and both are contrasted with being bored. "Mundane" can be used as a contrast to "spiritual." But to describe people as being "preoccupied with the mundane aspects of life" is not to say that they are preoccupied with worldly rather than spiritual matters. Rather, it says that they think mainly of boring, ordinary things― the very opposite of leading a stimulating life. Explanation for Incorrect Answer B : Choice (B) is incorrect. The phrase "in the world" indicates roughly the opposite of being reclusive and withdrawn. Although "in the world" could possibly be related to the knowledge of social conventions, the author is using the phrase here to indicate that the Hodgkinsons did not need someone else to provide them with stimulating ideas and activites present in the world. Explanation for Incorrect Answer C : Choice (C) is incorrect. The phrase "in the world" does not mean the same thing as "worldly." When someone is described as "worldly," there is a strong suggestion that the person does not greatly value spiritual pursuits. Describing someone as being "in the world," on the other hand, is compatible with believing the person to have a high regard for spiritual matters. Spiritual matters can be valued without shutting oneself off from the world. Explanation for Incorrect Answer D : Choice (D) is incorrect. The qualities of being "stylish" and "urbane" (or polished in manner) are strongly associated with being "in the world." But "ruthlessness" is not strongly associated with being "in the world." People who are "in the world" may be ruthless or they may be extremely considerate, just as people who are "in the world" may be very tall or very short. Ruthlessness is simply a completely independent quality. 17
ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS Explanation for Correct Answer C : Choice (C) is correct. The word "anxious" indicates that the narrator is conflicted about the conclusion he has drawn. Part of his hosts' liking him is that they accept him as one of their own. But this acceptance comes at a time when the narrator is not ready to think of himself as belonging to the middle class. So the conclusion that his hosts like him as one of their own makes the narrator feel "anxious," or ill at ease. Explanation for Incorrect Answer A : Choice (A) is incorrect. A conclusion like "they simply liked me" (line 47) does not betray the sort of extreme concern for getting every last detail right that the term "meticulous" suggests. Explanation for Incorrect Answer B : Choice (B) is incorrect. If a conclusion can be called impatient for having been drawn prematurely, then "impatient" misdescribes this particular conclusion. The narrator has sifted through a number of possibilities and does not draw this particular conclusion until he feels that there is no other choice. Explanation for Incorrect Answer D : Choice (D) is incorrect. Although the narrator felt uneasy about the conclusion he reached, there is no evidence that he was frightened by it. Explanation for Incorrect Answer E : Choice (E) is incorrect. Even supposing that an eager conclusion is not that one is eager to do something but is a conclusion that is eagerly arrived at, this cannot be the intended sense in this context. It is clear that the narrator draws this conclusion reluctantly, not eagerly. He says that he "finally had to come to the anxious conclusion . . . " He drew that conclusion because he saw no other choice, not because he very much wanted to draw it. 18
ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS Explanation for Correct Answer A : Choice (A) is correct. Jerry creates an identity for himself that is partly based on lies he tells about himself. Passage 1 suggests that after some time these lies seemed like fact, that they took hold, that they really became a part of Jerry's identity. The narrator of Passage 2 owes some of his sense of who he is to external factors: his university education, for example, but also "the accepting eyes of those a class above" (line 58) him. Other factors are internal: his feeling that he is still "a child from the slums," (lines 49-50) as well as his disapproval of and distaste for "middle-class comfort" (line 54). Explanation for Incorrect Answer B : Choice (B) is incorrect. "Ancestral background" suggests something broader than place of birth. But neither passage describes the type of family that the two men―Jerry and the narrator of Passage 2―are from. Explanation for Incorrect Answer C : Choice (C) is incorrect. Passage 1 does not say that Jerry was completely free in choosing his identity. Even he was constrained by the need to make his lies about himself believable. Others, therefore, imposed limits on the identity he could choose for himself. Passage 2 gives others an important role in determining a person's identity. The narrator realizes that acceptance into the middle class by people who are members of it is part of what it means to belong to the middle class. But the narrator also makes clear that he will not actually be a member of the middle class unless he fully embraces membership in that class. Explanation for Incorrect Answer D : Choice (D) is incorrect. The place Jerry grew up in is characterized as lower-class, and the place that the narrator of Passage 2 is from is called a slum. In both cases, there is a suggestion of physically unattractive surroundings. Both passages grant that place of birth has a significant impact on a person's identity. Neither passage "de-emphasizes" the part that the physical surroundings may play, though neither passage highlights it. Explanation for Incorrect Answer E : Choice (E) is incorrect. For example, the last sentence of Passage 2 is a striking example of considering the psychological effect (the narrator felt "like a hypocrite") of denying parts of one's identity. What the narrator regards as a denial of part of his identity is accepting certain people's hospitality and refraining from criticizing them. 19
ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS Explanation for Correct Answer E : Choice (E) is correct. Both Jerry and the narrator of Passage 2 live abroad. Jerry's rejection of his actual status in American society is crucial to his manufactured identity. But the identity he makes up for himself is itself based on status in American society. The narrator of Passage 2 also sees his identify in terms of his status in American society. He struggles with his sense of self because his status in American society is not securely settled. Thus, both passages illustrate the generalization that Americans living abroad consider their American social status an important part of their identity. Explanation for Incorrect Answer A : Choice (A) is incorrect. For both Jerry and the narrator of Passage 2, social position plays a central role in their lives. Charm and personality are not central concerns. In fact, the narrator of Passage 2 is reluctant to conclude that his hosts might simply like him. Explanation for Incorrect Answer B : Choice (B) is incorrect. Neither Jerry nor the narrator of Passage 2 is portrayed as very wealthy, but it is clear that both are very much concerned with social position. Furthermore, the wealthy family with whom the narrator of Passage 2 lives seems unconcerned with the narrator's lower social position. Explanation for Incorrect Answer C : Choice (C) is incorrect. The idea that a society without class distinctions is possible is not raised in either narrative and is most definitely not associated with either Jerry or with the narrator of Passage 2. Explanation for Incorrect Answer D : Choice (D) is incorrect. No account is offered for why either Jerry or the narrator of Passage 2 is living abroad. It is, however, clear that it is not to escape all confinement by social class. Jerry does want to escape his own social class, but social class is crucial to the new identity that he builds for himself. The narrator of Passage 2 is unhappy that his social-class membership is so unsettled, but what he seems to want is a social class that he can feel at home in, not to be free from social class altogether. | 
