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11.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS Explanation for Correct Answer A : Choice (A) is correct. The narrator imagines that Sheila Fell greatly dislikes having her works looked over by prospective buyers while she herself is present. Since at this point in the account the narrator does not know Sheila Fell well, this idea must come from a belief about artists in general. Lines 3 through 5 make clear that the narrator has such a belief, and lines 4 and 5 suggest the narrator would not like displaying her own work in front of an audience. Explanation for Incorrect Answer B : Choice (B) is incorrect. The sentence in line 8 expresses the belief that Sheila Fell would prefer not being there when the narrator looked at her paintings. The sentence does not say or imply anything about how excited the narrator is at this stage either about Sheila Fell's work or about her own. Explanation for Incorrect Answer C : Choice (C) is incorrect. The narrator does suggest, in lines 4 and 5, that she would not want to watch people read her books. The narrator also talks about wishing she could look at Sheila's paintings alone and, in line 8, about Sheila likely having the same wish. But this does not say anything about how secure or insecure she feels in general about promoting her books. Explanation for Incorrect Answer D : Choice (D) is incorrect. The sentence in line 8 does not suggest that the narrator regards the attitude she imagines Sheila Fell to have as "eccentric." Rather, at this point it is an attitude that the narrator believes Sheila Fell shares with artists in general. Explanation for Incorrect Answer E : Choice (E) is incorrect. The fact that the narrator talks about artists and about Sheila Fell in a speculative vein in the entire first paragraph suggests that she had not spent much time in the company of artists. So there is no strong suggestion in that paragraph that the narrator enjoyed the company of artists. 12
12.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS Explanation for Correct Answer B : Choice (B) is correct. The first paragraph is about the narrator's expectation that her visit to a painter's studio would be awkward and that both painter and visitor would be ill at ease. The second paragraph says that in reality the exact opposite happened: the painter and, in consequence, the visitor, ended up being "perfectly at ease." So the central contrast drawn in the two paragraphs is between expectation and reality. Explanation for Incorrect Answer A : Choice (A) is incorrect. The central contrast that the two paragraphs draw is not the contrast between being guided by ideals and dealing with things as one finds them. The two paragraphs contrast what the narrator thinks a certain situation will be like and what it actually turns out to be like. The central element of "idealism"―the embracing of some standard of perfection―is absent here. Explanation for Incorrect Answer C : Choice (C) is incorrect. In particular, the second paragraph does not deal with any "investigation" in the sense of a systematic examination. What the second paragraph describes is a "realization." But this realization is achieved without the sort of active effort that the term "investigation" suggests. Explanation for Incorrect Answer D : Choice (D) is incorrect. The term "anticipation" is not a good choice to describe what the first paragraph is about, because "anticipation" carries the suggestion of a pleasurable expectation, whereas in this text the narrator looks ahead with some anxiety. As for the second paragraph, "disappointment" is simply a misdescription. The opposite of disappointment, something like "happy surprise," better describes how the author characterizes the situation presented in the second paragraph. Explanation for Incorrect Answer E : Choice (E) is incorrect. The first two paragraphs do concern themselves with the purchase of a painting. But in these paragraphs the narrator does not touch on whether either the seller or the buyer acts generously, nor on whether either of them has feelings of "possessiveness," or ownership. 13
13.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS Explanation for Correct Answer C : Choice (C) is correct. The narrator uses the phrase "to do it justice" in the sense of "treat it as it should be treated" and says, in effect, that the dimensions of her house and the light inside the house made it impossible to display the painting adequately. To do the painting justice would have meant displaying it in such a way as to highlight its superior qualities. Explanation for Incorrect Answer A : Choice (A) is incorrect. The narrator, in complaining about not being able to do justice to the painting, is not talking about being unable to recognize the unique achievements of the painter. The narrator's problem lies in being unable to display the painting in a way that would give its qualities their full due. Explanation for Incorrect Answer B : Choice (B) is incorrect. The narrator does not use the phrase "to do it justice" in the sense of making it accessible to as many people as possible. In fact, the narrator shows no concern over size of audience. What the narrator is concerned about is being unable to display the painting the way she felt it deserved. Explanation for Incorrect Answer D : Choice (D) is incorrect. The way the narrator uses "justice" in line 25 is not concerned with what art can do for people in their daily lives. The underlying idea is that ownership of the sort of exceptional painting that the author is talking about imposes certain obligations on the owner (e.g., the obligation to display the painting in a way that does not diminish its power). Explanation for Incorrect Answer E : Choice (E) is incorrect. The narrator’s point is not that exceptional paintings should generally be displayed in elegant surroundings. Instead, the point is that the dimensions and lighting of a display space are important, not that the space must be elegant. 14
14.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS Explanation for Correct Answer B : Choice (B) is correct. The narrator explains that selling the painting had been "a terrible mistake" because it turned out that she missed the painting very much. She "grieved for it" (line 40). She says that she should not have let it matter that the painting had been overwhelming, too large, and too dramatic for the space she had available. She should have held onto the painting because of how much she loved it. Explanation for Incorrect Answer A : Choice (A) is incorrect. The passage does not say anything about other souvenirs of Cumberland that the narrator had. It is likely that souvenirs of Cumberland were not very important to the narrator at the time the painting was sold, because at that time she lived in Cumberland again. Explanation for Incorrect Answer C : Choice (C) is incorrect. How much the painting is worth is never brought up by the narrator. Her account of why the sale had been a terrible mistake makes it clear that financial considerations had nothing to do with that decision. Explanation for Incorrect Answer D : Choice (D) is incorrect. There is no indication in the passage that Sheila Fell had "entrusted" the painting to the narrator. She simply sold it. In fact, the passage suggests that Sheila Fell cared very little about who bought her paintings. Therefore, the resale of the painting by the narrator could not have been a betrayal of Sheila Fell's trust. Explanation for Incorrect Answer E : Choice (E) is incorrect. The fact that the smaller Sheila Fell painting was not a satisfactory substitute for the painting the narrator had sold does not mean that she was unable to appreciate the smaller painting on its own terms. The passage does not speak to this point. The terrible mistake was simply selling the well-loved larger painting in the first place. 15
15.ANSWERS AND EXPLANATIONS Explanation for Correct Answer C : Choice (C) is correct. The comparison of the sale of a painting with the "folly of a divorce" suggests that the narrator's feelings about the painting were very strong and that she felt terrible about having sold it. Explanation for Incorrect Answer A : Choice (A) is incorrect. The narrator had had the painting in one house for thirty years. But the painting never lost its special aura. In fact, when even the new house in Cumberland proved to have no suitable space for adequately displaying the painting, the disappointment was so vivid that the painting was sold. Explanation for Incorrect Answer B : Choice (B) is incorrect. There is no indication that any recollections that the painting brought to mind were misleading. In any event, the "folly" of line 41 has nothing to do with recollections that the painting reinforced. It has to do with the narrator's failure to appreciate how attached she had become to this particular painting. Explanation for Incorrect Answer D : Choice (D) is incorrect. The only decision that the passage talks about at this point is the narrator's decision to sell the painting. The point the narrator makes is that her own continued inability to do the painting justice finally provoked her into making the wrong decision. There is no suggestion that the painting provoked her to make a premature decision. Explanation for Incorrect Answer E : Choice (E) is incorrect. The passage does not mention any painful memories associated with haystacks in a field, which is what the painting depicts. The "folly" of line 41 is linked with pain, but not the pain of certain memories. Rather, it is the pain of hugely missing something that one has gotten rid of voluntarily. | 
