Read the following excerpt from the article "Vision, Voice and the Power of Creation: An Author Speaks Out," by T. A. Barron, an
d answer the question that follows: Yet deeper than character, or even place, is another concept: voice. More than any other doorway to the imagination, I find this one the trickiest to open—and the hardest to close. For a character's true voice is heard, its tones, cadences, and ideas are long remembered.
The ancients [people from ancient history] used anima, in fact, to describe breath as well as soul. That is wholly appropriate, for in the breath—the voice—of a character lies its essential spirit. If the writer can truly hear the voice of a character, so will the reader.
Which phrase explicitly states the author's attitude about voice?
It is the trickiest door to open.
The ancients invented it.
Only the writer hears it.
The reader will always hear it.
The phrase that explicitly states the author's attitude about the voice is the first one. If we find the same phrase in the text <em>(I find this one the trickiest to open)</em><em>, </em>we can see that it's preceded by words<em> I find</em>. This means that he personally considers that door the trickiest to open. That is his attitude, and he reveals it to us explicitly, leaving no room for doubt.
The rest of the statements are incorrect because:
Ancients using the voice is a fact. That is not an opinion.
Statements that only the writer hears the voice and that the reader will always hear it are incorrect. The sentence from the passage that proves this is: <em>If the writer can truly hear the voice of a character, so will the reader. </em>
