Function of Conflict: Short Fiction Practice Test
•15 QuestionsRead the excerpt from a short story:
The first snow came late, a thin layer that made the sidewalks look dusted rather than transformed. Mr. Alvarez stood at the classroom window while the students pretended to take notes. The heating pipes clicked and sighed like an old man settling into a chair.
On his desk lay a stack of essays titled “What I Want to Be.” He had assigned the prompt because the curriculum demanded “future orientation,” but he had read enough to know the future often arrived like an interruption.
One essay was from Darnell, who sat in the third row and never raised his hand. Darnell’s handwriting leaned hard to the right, as if hurrying away. I want to be alive at twenty-five, the essay began.
Mr. Alvarez read the sentence twice. He looked up at Darnell, who kept his eyes on his notebook. The room felt suddenly too small.
After class, Mr. Alvarez asked Darnell to stay. “Are you safe?” he asked, hating how official the words sounded.
Darnell shrugged. “Safe is a big word,” he said.
Mr. Alvarez thought of the mandatory reporting forms in the main office, the way paperwork could become a substitute for help.
He wanted to intervene in Darnell’s life in a way that mattered, but he feared that the systems meant to protect students would reduce Darnell to a case file and make things worse.
He sat down across from Darnell anyway.
In the excerpt, what is the primary function of the bolded conflict?
Read the excerpt from a short story:
The first snow came late, a thin layer that made the sidewalks look dusted rather than transformed. Mr. Alvarez stood at the classroom window while the students pretended to take notes. The heating pipes clicked and sighed like an old man settling into a chair.
On his desk lay a stack of essays titled “What I Want to Be.” He had assigned the prompt because the curriculum demanded “future orientation,” but he had read enough to know the future often arrived like an interruption.
One essay was from Darnell, who sat in the third row and never raised his hand. Darnell’s handwriting leaned hard to the right, as if hurrying away. I want to be alive at twenty-five, the essay began.
Mr. Alvarez read the sentence twice. He looked up at Darnell, who kept his eyes on his notebook. The room felt suddenly too small.
After class, Mr. Alvarez asked Darnell to stay. “Are you safe?” he asked, hating how official the words sounded.
Darnell shrugged. “Safe is a big word,” he said.
Mr. Alvarez thought of the mandatory reporting forms in the main office, the way paperwork could become a substitute for help.
He wanted to intervene in Darnell’s life in a way that mattered, but he feared that the systems meant to protect students would reduce Darnell to a case file and make things worse.
He sat down across from Darnell anyway.
In the excerpt, what is the primary function of the bolded conflict?