#10 - Specific Reference, Must Be True, Purpose/Function

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (E).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C):

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[vangorgc]

Can you explain how we would know peevish was supposed to mean sour instead of neurotic? What context could be used here?

[Robert Carroll]

van,

I see the context in the first sentence of the second paragraph. Harry Block is the most unequivocally peevish. The sourest portrait before Harry is discussed in that first sentence of the second paragraph. So the author seems to be saying something like "This is the second most X thing Allen did. The most X thing Allen did is Block." Well, X is peevish and sour in those two contexts, so it seems the author is intending to use them interchangeably - otherwise, the comparison in that sentence is a comparison with only one element!

Robert Carroll