Text Structure and Purpose

SAT Reading and Writing· difficulty 5/5

Reviewers often praise novelist Lila Aoki's prose for its restraint, citing her habit of withholding emotional commentary. Critic Jordan Vega, however, argues that this surface restraint masks an unusually direct emotional appeal: by refusing to interpret events for the reader, Aoki forces readers to supply the missing affective content themselves, intensifying rather than dampening their emotional response.

Which choice best describes the function of the second sentence in the text?

  • A

    It repeats the reviewers' assessment using different terms.

  • B

    It dismisses Aoki's prose as emotionally manipulative.

  • C

    It introduces a critical position that reinterprets, rather than rejects, the surface feature reviewers identify.

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  • D

    It compares Aoki's prose to that of another novelist.

Explanation

Vega doesn't deny the restraint reviewers observe; he reinterprets its effect. B captures this reinterpretive — not contradictory — relationship.

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