Directions: The next questions are based on the content of
the following passage. Read the passage and then determine the best answer
choice for each question. Base your choice on what this passage states directly
or implies, not on any information you may have gained elsewhere.
For each of Questions 7-11, select one answer choice unless otherwise
instructed. Questions 7-9 are based on the following
passage. James’s first novels used conventional
nar- rative techniques: explicit characterization,
action that related events in distinctly phased Line sequences,
settings firmly outlined and (5) specifically described. But this
method grad- ually gave way to a subtler, more
deliberate, more diffuse style of accumulation of
minutely discriminated details whose total significance
the reader can grasp only by (10) constant attention and
sensitive inference. His later novels play down scenes of
abrupt and prominent action, and do not so much
offer a succession of sharp shocks as slow piecemeal
additions of perception. The cur- (15) tain is not suddenly
drawn back from shrouded things, but is slowly moved
away. Such a technique is suited to James’s essential
subject, which is not human action itself but the states
of mind that produce and are pro- (20) duced by human actions
and interactions. James was less interested in what
characters do, than in the moral and psychological
antecedents, realizations, and consequences which attend
their doings. This is why he (25) more often speaks of "cases"
than of actions. His stories, therefore, grow more and
more lengthy while the actions they relate grow
simpler and less visible; not because they are crammed
with adventitious and secondary (30) events, digressive relief,
or supernumerary characters, as overstuffed novels of
action are; but because he presents in such exhaus-
tive detail every nuance of his situation. Commonly the
interest of a novel is in the (35) variety and excitement of
visible actions building up to a climactic event which
will settle the outward destinies of characters
with storybook promise of permanence. A James novel,
however, possesses its character- (40) istic interest in
carrying the reader through a rich analysis of the mental
adjustments of characters to the realities of their
personal situations as they are slowly revealed to
them through exploration and chance discovery. The passage supplies information for answering which of the following
questions
A. Did James originate the so-called psychological novel
B. Is conventional narrative technique strictly chronological in recounting
action
C. Can novels lacking overtly dramatic incident sustain the reader’s
interest
D. Were James’s later novels more acceptable to the general public than his
earlier ones
E. Is James unique in his predilection for exploring psychological nuances
of character