Question

excerpt from chapter 2 of leo tolstoy’s anna karenina
stepan arkadyevitch was a truthful man in his relations with himself. he was incapable of deceiving himself and persuading himself that he repented of his conduct. he could not at this date repent of the fact that he, a handsome, susceptible man of thirty - four, was not in love with his wife, the mother of five living and two dead children, and only a year younger than himself. all he repented of was that he had not succeeded better in hiding it from his wife. but he felt all the difficulty of his position and was sorry for his wife, his children, and himself. possibly he might have managed to conceal his sins better from his wife if he had anticipated that the knowledge of them would have had such an effect on her. he had never clearly thought out the subject, but he had vaguely conceived that his wife must long ago have suspected him of being unfaithful to her, and shut her eyes to the fact. he had even
use the excerpt to answer the question.
which sentence best describes how tolstoy uses dialogue in this passage?
(1 point)
○ tolstoy uses dialogue frequently to develop character.
○ tolstoy uses dialogue evenly to balance the narration.
○ tolstoy uses dialogue frequently to convey strong emotion.
○ tolstoy uses dialogue sparingly, when conversation comes naturally.
○ tolstoy uses dialogue sparingly, mostly to express important occurrences.

Explanation:

First, analyze the excerpt: the passage provided is mostly narration (describing Stepan Arkadyevitch’s thoughts and feelings) with no dialogue shown. Now, evaluate the options:

• Option 1: Says dialogue is used “frequently to develop character,” but the excerpt has no dialogue, so this is incorrect.
• Option 2: Says dialogue is used “evenly to balance the narration,” but there’s no dialogue to balance, so incorrect.
• Option 3: Says dialogue is used “frequently to convey strong emotion,” but no dialogue is present, so incorrect.
• Option 4: Says dialogue is used “sparingly, when conversation comes naturally.” Since the excerpt is narrative (no dialogue here), it implies dialogue is used only when natural, which fits—if there were dialogue, it would be when conversation occurs naturally, and here, the passage is narrative, so dialogue is sparse.
• Option 5: Says dialogue is used “sparingly, mostly to express important occurrences.” The excerpt’s focus is on internal thoughts, not “important occurrences” via dialogue, so less likely than Option 4.

So the best answer is the fourth option: “Tolstoy uses dialogue sparingly, when conversation comes naturally.”

Answer:

Tolstoy uses dialogue sparingly, when conversation comes naturally.