Digital PSAT Reading and Writing Practice Question 188: Answer and Explanation

Question: 188

The following text is from Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1852 novel, The Blithedale Romance. Mr. Coverdale, an idealistic young man of the nineteenth century who has recently moved onto a utopian farm, is recovering from a fever.

All other members of the Community showed me kindness according to the full measure of their capacity. Zenobia brought me my gruel, every day, made by her own hands; and whenever I seemed inclined to converse, would sit by my bed-side, and talk with so much vivacity as to add several gratuitous throbs to my pulse.

What is the most likely reason that the author has capitalized the word Community?

• A. To be consistent with common cultural practices in the writing of the 1800s
• B. To label it a formal proper noun, since it likely refers to an idealistic commune
• C. To demonstrate the narrator's unusual passion for larger urban developments
• D. To distinguish it from other municipalities discussed earlier in the passage

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

(B) The introduction to the text clarifies that Coverdale has moved onto a "utopian communal farm," and it is this commune to which the word Community refers. There is no evidence in the text that writers of the 1800s consistently wrote in this manner, as in choice (A). There also is no evidence that the narrator is interested in larger urban developments, as in choice (C), because he has chosen to move to a farming community. And there is no mention of other cities (municipalities) earlier in the text, making choice (D) incorrect.