Read the following passage.
A. Lucy Maud Montgomery is best known for Anne of Green Gables, the story of a clever, talkative orphan girl who is sent by mistake to an elderly brother and sister who had asked for a boy. Nearly all of her novels are set in Prince Edward Island, and reviewers praised them for their strong sense of place, their humour and their shrewd view of human nature. By her own account, the first Anne manuscript was rejected five times before the L. C. Page Company of Boston accepted it in 1907. The book came out in 1908 and was a great success, and Dutch and Swedish translations appeared within a year.
B. Montgomery was born in 1874 in Clifton, now New London, Prince Edward Island. Her mother died of tuberculosis when Montgomery was only 21 months old, and she was raised by her mother's parents, Alexander and Lucy Macneill, in Cavendish. She trained at Prince of Wales College in Charlottetown, and in 1894 she began teaching school. In 1898 she went back to Cavendish to live with her widowed grandmother, and over the next years she published hundreds of stories and poems, and also her first novel. For nine months in 1901 and 1902 she also worked in Halifax for the Daily Echo newspaper as a proofreader and journalist.
C. In 1911, after her grandmother's death, she married the Reverend Ewen Macdonald, who had taken a position in Leaskdale, a rural community north of Toronto. They had three sons, one of whom died at birth. When her Boston publisher failed to pay her royalties, she sued, and all five of her lawsuits were settled in her favour by 1928. In 1935 the family moved to Swansea, at the western edge of Toronto. She died there in 1942 and was buried in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.
D. Her private journals reveal a less familiar side of Montgomery. She kept them from 1889 until 1942, and selections have since been published. Readers have been startled by her extreme mood swings and by the sharp, judgemental pen of a writer whose novels are so humorous and tolerant. In her later years she suffered from clinical depression, and she was treated with drugs whose damaging side effects were not then understood. As a minister's wife she had to be discreet in public, so the journals became the place for things she could not say aloud. From 1919 she also copied and reshaped them, and they present her as she wanted to be remembered.
E. Not given in any of the above paragraphs.
Decide which paragraph, A to D, has the information given in each statement below. Select E if the information is not given in any of the paragraphs.
AI explanationShows the answer. Tap to open.
Correct Answer: D
Why this is correct: Paragraph D says readers of her journals were startled by her sharp, judgemental pen. Yet her novels are humorous and tolerant. Harsher in private than in her fiction is the same contrast.
Passage Reference: Readers have been startled by her extreme mood swings and by the sharp, judgemental pen of a writer whose novels are so humorous and tolerant.
Tips: The first paragraph talks about her novels. Look for the paragraph that compares them with her private writing.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Paragraph A praises her novels for humour and a shrewd view of human nature, but it says nothing about her private writing.
- B: Paragraph B lists the stories and poems she published as a young woman. How she wrote in private is not described.
- C: Paragraph C is about her marriage, her sons, her lawsuits and her last move. Her journals do not come up.
- E: Paragraph D sets her sharp, judgemental private pen beside the gentle tone of her novels.
Correct Answer: B
Passage Reference: Her mother died of tuberculosis when Montgomery was only 21 months old, and she was raised by her mother's parents, Alexander and Lucy Macneill, in Cavendish.
Why this is correct: Paragraph B says her mother died of tuberculosis when Montgomery was 21 months old. Twenty-one months is a little less than two years, so she was not yet two.
Tips: More than one death comes up. Find the one about her 'mother', then check how old she was and whether that is under two years.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Look at paragraph A: it describes her famous novel, whose heroine is an orphan. But it tells us nothing about Montgomery's own mother.
- C: In paragraph C, the writer mentions her grandmother's death before the wedding in 1911, a different loss from her mother's.
- D: The fourth paragraph is about her journals and her depression in later life, not her early childhood.
- E: The age at which she lost her mother, 21 months, is given in Paragraph B.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: When her Boston publisher failed to pay her royalties, she sued, and all five of her lawsuits were settled in her favour by 1928.
Why this is correct: Paragraph C says her Boston publisher failed to pay her royalties, so she sued. Royalties are money a writer earns from book sales, so the court case was about money owed to her.
Tips: Her publisher turns up more than once in the passage. Decide which mention involves a fight over money she was owed.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph names the L. C. Page Company of Boston, but only as the firm that accepted her first novel in 1907.
- B: Look at paragraph B: it covers her schooling, teaching and newspaper job. No publisher or lawsuit is mentioned.
- D: In paragraph D, the writer says selections from her journals have been published, which has nothing to do with a court case.
- E: Her lawsuits over unpaid royalties, all five settled in her favour, are part of Paragraph C.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: By her own account, the first Anne manuscript was rejected five times before the L. C. Page Company of Boston accepted it in 1907.
Why this is correct: Paragraph A tells us the L. C. Page Company accepted the novel in 1907 and that it became a great success. It never says how much she was paid, or whether she was paid anything, when it was accepted.
Tips: Money appears only as unpaid royalties in Paragraph C. Ask whether any paragraph gives a payment for the first book.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph gives the year the novel was accepted and its later success. But it gives no sum of money at all.
- B: Notice that paragraph B mentions her first novel among the things she published, but it gives no figure for what she earned.
- C: The third paragraph involves money, but only royalties her publisher failed to pay, not a payment on acceptance.
- D: Her journals and her health are the subject of paragraph D. What she earned is never discussed.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: By her own account, the first Anne manuscript was rejected five times before the L. C. Page Company of Boston accepted it in 1907.
Why this is correct: Paragraph A says that, by her own account, the first Anne manuscript was rejected five times before the L. C. Page Company accepted it. Rejected five times means it was refused more than once.
Tips: Find the story of the novel before it was printed. Check whether it was turned down more than once.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: Notice that paragraph B says she published hundreds of stories and poems. But it does not say any of her work was turned down.
- C: The third paragraph describes her fight with her publisher over royalties, which came long after the book was accepted.
- D: Look at paragraph D: it says her journals were reshaped and later published. Nothing in it is refused by a publisher.
- E: In paragraph A, the writer reports the five rejections before a Boston firm accepted the manuscript.
Correct Answer: E
Passage Reference: She kept them from 1889 until 1942, and selections have since been published.
Why this is correct: Paragraph D tells us she kept private journals from 1889 until 1942 and that selections have since been published. It never compares their sales with the sales of her novels.
Tips: Diaries and publishing appear in Paragraph D. Check whether it actually compares them with the novels.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: Notice that paragraph A says her first novel was a great success and was quickly translated. No diaries are mentioned there.
- B: The second paragraph lists what she published as a young woman, not how any of her books sell today.
- C: Look at paragraph C: it covers her family, her lawsuits and her last years. Sales of her books are not compared.
- D: The fourth paragraph says her journals were published, but it makes no comparison with how well her novels sell.
Correct Answer: A
Passage Reference: The book came out in 1908 and was a great success, and Dutch and Swedish translations appeared within a year.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph A says the book came out in 1908 and that Dutch and Swedish translations appeared within a year. A translation lets readers of that language read the story in their own tongue, and within a year is soon.
Tips: Scan for Dutch and Swedish. Then check how soon after the novel came out they are mentioned.
Why the other options are wrong:
- B: The second paragraph mentions a Halifax newspaper, but not her books in other languages.
- C: Paragraph C does mention her Boston publisher, but not readers in Europe or translations.
- D: In paragraph D, the writer says her journals were published, but nothing about translating her novel.
- E: The Dutch and Swedish versions of her first book, which came out within a year, are named in Paragraph A.
Correct Answer: D
Passage Reference: In her later years she suffered from clinical depression, and she was treated with drugs whose damaging side effects were not then understood.
Why this is correct: Her later years are covered in paragraph D: she suffered from clinical depression and was treated with drugs. Clinical depression is a serious mental illness, and drugs are medication.
Tips: Illness comes up more than once. Find the one that affected her mind, then check that she was given medicine for it.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph is about her famous novel and its success. Her health is never mentioned.
- B: Look at paragraph B: it names tuberculosis, but that was her mother's illness, not her own.
- C: The year of her death is in paragraph C, yet no illness or treatment is mentioned there.
- E: Her clinical depression and the drugs used to treat it appear in Paragraph D.
Correct Answer: C
Passage Reference: She died there in 1942 and was buried in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.
Why this is correct: Notice that paragraph C says the family moved to Swansea, at the western edge of Toronto. She died there in 1942 and was buried in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island. Laid to rest means buried.
Tips: Prince Edward Island and Toronto both come up more than once. Ask which part joins the place she 'died' with where she was 'laid to rest'.
Why the other options are wrong:
- A: The first paragraph names Prince Edward Island as the setting of her novels, not as her burial place.
- B: Notice that paragraph B says she was born and raised on the island, but it does not say where she was buried.
- D: In paragraph D, the writer mentions 1942 as the last year of her journals, but not where she died or was buried.
- E: Her death in Swansea and her burial in Cavendish close Paragraph C.
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