Question in-jan
In Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park, an almost imperceptible smile from potential suitor Henry Crawford causes the protagonist Fanny Price to blush; her embarrassment grows when she suspects that he is aware of it. This moment—in which Fanny not only infers Henry’s mental state through his gestures, but also infers that he is drawing inferences about her mental state—illustrates what literary scholar George Butte calls “deep intersubjectivity,” a technique for representing interactions between consciousnesses through which Austen’s novels derive much of their social and psychological drama.
Which choice best describes the function of the underlined sentence in the text as a whole?
It states a claim about Austen’s skill at representing psychological complexity that is reinforced by an example presented in the following sentence.
It advances an interpretation of an Austen protagonist who is contrasted with protagonists from other Austen novels cited in the following sentence.
It describes a recurring theme in Austen’s novels that is the focus of a literary scholar’s analysis summarized in the following sentence.
It provides a synopsis of an interaction in an Austen novel that illustrates a literary concept discussed in the following sentence.
In Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park , an almost imperceptible smile from potential suitor Henry Crawford
Hard-difficulty · SAT Reading & Writing · Text Structure and Purpose — Function of a sentence or paragraph. Read the question above, select your answer, and check the full explanation below to understand exactly why the correct choice works.
Answer explanation
Choice D is the best answer. The underlined sentence provides a concrete example to ground readers’ understanding of the “deep intersubjectivity” described in the next sentence as central to Austen’s work.
Choice A is incorrect. There is no evaluation made of Austen’s skill in this sentence, and no examples are given in the following sentence. This choice essentially flips the paragraph: it’s this first sentence that provides an example. Choice B is incorrect. There are no other Austen protagonists mentioned in this passage, so this couldn’t be the answer. Choice C is incorrect. The underlined sentence doesn’t identify any “recurring theme,” but instead simply describes one interaction from one book. This interaction exemplifies the literary technique of “deep intersubjectivity” that is introduced in the next sentence.
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