Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (1892): the narrator says John’s being a physician is “perhaps” why she recovers slowly. Which claim is best supported?

Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (1892): a student says John encourages the narrator’s imagination. Which phrase from the story corrects that reading?

Gilman, “The Yellow Wall-Paper” (1892): the narrator declares “something queer about it” and asks why the house is cheap. What remains uncertain?

Douglass, Narrative of the Life (1845): "I have no accurate knowledge of my age, never having seen any authentic record containing it." What does this sentence state directly, rather than leave the reader to infer?

Douglass, Narrative of the Life (1845): a student says the fight with Mr. Covey changed nothing for Douglass. Which phrase from his account most directly corrects that?

Douglass, Narrative of the Life (1845), on the whispered claim that his master was his father: “of the correctness of this opinion, I know nothing.” What does Douglass leave unsettled?

Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” (1894): Louise whispers “free, free, free!” Which statement is best supported?

Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” (1894): a student says Josephine breaks the news to Louise bluntly. Which phrase from the story corrects that?

Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” (1894): “A kind intention or a cruel intention made the act seem no less a crime.” What remains unsettled?

Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (1853): the narrator knows only what he saw, except “one vague report.” Which claim is best supported?

Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (1853): a student says Bartleby refuses his employer in open rage. Which phrase from the story corrects that reading?

Melville, “Bartleby, the Scrivener” (1853): asked “where you were born,” Bartleby answers, “I would prefer not to.” What does the exchange leave uncertain?

Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843): “nervous” is admitted, but the narrator asks, “why will you say that I am mad?” Which claim is best supported?

Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843): a student says the narrator’s disease weakened his perception. Which word from his description of the disease’s effect on his senses corrects that?

Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843): “I heard many things in hell. How, then, am I mad?” What does the passage leave for readers to judge?

Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850): in the preface, the author “utterly disclaims such motives.” Which claim is best supported?

Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850), preface: “The sketch might, perhaps, have been wholly omitted.” A student says Hawthorne flatly declares the sketch should have been cut. Which word corrects that?

Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter (1850): the narrator imagines “the few who will understand him.” What is not specified?

Cather, My Ántonia (1918): “I do not see much of him there” follows the note that Jim and the narrator both live in New York. Which claim is best supported?

Cather, My Ántonia (1918): a student says the old road matters to Jim only as geography. Which phrase from his closing reflection corrects that?

Cather, My Ántonia (1918): “Whatever we had missed, we possessed together the precious... past.” What remains uncertain?

Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” (1849): “the true place for a just man is also a prison.” Which claim is best supported?

Declaration of Independence (1776): a student says governments get their power from tradition. Which phrase from the Declaration corrects that reading?

Madison, Federalist No. 10 (1787): “No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause” because interest biases judgment. Which inference is strongest?

Morrison, Nobel Lecture (1993): after the bird parable, she asks, “Suppose nothing was in their hands?” What is deliberately unsettled?