GRE课程
Questions 1 and 2 are based on this passage
Harriet Martineau's Illustrations of Political Economy, a series of didactic novellas about industrialists and workers that were immensely popular upon their publication(1832-1834), are considered the first industrial novels. But instead of foregrounding suffering individuals, as other industrial novels do, they champion the impersonal economic laws that determine individuals' behavior. Martineau's explicit aim is to convince her readers of the truth of the principles laid out by such economic philosophers as Thomas Malthus. Yet the novellas' embrace of predetermined truths blunts their narrative force. Their claim to be “illustrations,” in which stories of human choice serve only to make vivid an abstract law. contravenes the relation in most realist fiction between abstract law and lived experience, in which the former is found inadequate to explain the latter.
Which of the following statements best describes the function of the highlighted sentence?
It contrasts Martineau's industrial novellas favorably with realist fiction that gives less attention to abstract law.
It suggests that the claim of Martineau's novellas to be “illustrations” misrepresents their true purpose
It questions the view, evident in most realist fiction, that abstract law is necessarily inadequate to explain lived experience.
It identifies a tendency in Martineau's novellas that distinguishes them from most realist fiction.
It points out an unexpected way in which Martineau's novellas anticipate certain qualities of later realist fiction
Select one answer choice.
