What is the conclusion of the passage?

Question

>A single short story can suggest a desired response from the reader. It is a difficult task, though, to createa world within a single short story and then repeat this world again in other stories while maintaining aconsistent flow of ideas. Many authors prefer to use the same setting, indeed, often the same characters ineach story. Isabel Allende’s Diez Cuentos’ de EvaLuna comes to mind. In these stories, Allende uses the small town of Agua Santa as the setting for the entirecollection.>Woman Hollering Creek is a collection of short stories by Sandra Cisneros. Rather than using the samecharacters or setting throughout the collection, Cisneros takes a different approach to relating her stories toone another. Much of the burden, in fact, is placed onthe reader, for the characters change each time, as does the setting. Furthermore, while the characters arelargely Mexican American immigrant women, each character presents a distinct style and literary voice. **What*these* works have in common is more intuitive; mood, circumstance, time, tone, and imagery all play a role increating the world in which the stories take place**What does ***these*** refers to? Are they Sandra's short stories or both of the writers ?

Answer 1

The structure of the passage determines the answer. It appears that the first paragraph ends with the sentence: "In these stories, Allende uses the small town of Agua Santa as the setting for the entirecollection."

If the next break between paragraphs occurs here: **What*these* works have in common is more intuitive; mood, circumstance, time, tone, and imagery all play a role in creating the world in which the stories take place**, it would be read to mean both authors and all of the stories together.

If the question "What these works have in common..." comes immediately after the information about Cisneros' work, it is to be read regarding only the short stories written by Sandra Cisneros.

However, be aware that if what you provided in the passage is the only information provided for say a reading comprehension question on a test, the answer would refer to the examples from Allende and Cisneros.