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Lesson 3
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ARCO
■ SAT II Subject Tests
42. The correct answer is (A). The opinion of the doctors reinforces the irony discussed above.
The doctors can see only the “outside” of the events: The woman believes she has lost her
beloved husband but subsequently learns he is still alive, and the sudden happiness causes heart
failure. We as readers, however, are aware of the “inside,” so we know that it was not happiness
that killed Mrs. Mallard.
43. The correct answer is (D).  In the next-to-last sentence in the third paragraph, the author refers to the
attempt to control another person’s will as a crime and states that it is so regardless of the intentions
of the dominant personality. What is interesting about that sentence is that it stands almost outside of
the text. Every other thought in the story is clearly a part of the narrative: “great care was taken,” “it
was Josephine,” “she did not hear,” “she knew that,” “she descended,” and “they said.” The sentence
in question, however, is simply a statement of fact. It is not prefaced by a “she thought” or “she
believed.” Although the thought must be attributed in the story to Mrs. Mallard, the fact that the idea
is almost independent of the narrative indicates that the idea is also shared by the author.
44. The correct answer is (C).  Above we noted that Mrs. Mallard reacted to the news of her husband’s
death with mixed emotions. As she stands at the window in her room, she is in her mind looking far into
the future at a “long procession of years to come that would belong to her.” This mental gaze is paral-
leled by her actual vision, which looks to a point a great distance removed and at a patch of open sky.
45. The correct answer is (C).  Why is the window open rather than closed? Or why does the author
even mention whether or not the window is open or closed? The fact that Mrs. Mallard is looking out
of a window to the freedom of the outdoors is itself suggestive of the freedom she will have in the
future, but that idea is reinforced by the fact that the window is open.