Question

What prompted her to tell him to leave right away?

• A. principle
• B. ambiguity
• C. submission
• D. certainty

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

Step 1: Identifying the Character and Context:
The pronoun “her” refers to Frau Frieda, a woman who makes a living by selling her dreams. The author has a close, friendly relationship with her in Vienna, sharing a connection over their student days in the city.

Step 2: Analyzing the Core Motivation:
Frau Frieda had a prophetic dream about the author the previous night. Because her dreams are treated as absolute, infallible omens that predict the future, a dream about the author signaled imminent danger or tragedy if he stayed in Vienna.

Step 3: Explaining the Prompting Action:
Driven by her dream's warnings and genuine concern for the author's safety, she came to him to deliver an urgent, explicit warning: he must leave Vienna immediately and not return for five years.

Answer 2

Step 1: Reviewing the Immediate Reaction of the Narrator:
The author describes being deeply shaken by the absolute certainty and conviction in Frau Frieda's voice during their meeting at the tavern.

Step 2: Identifying the Physical Location:
The passage states, “Her conviction was so real that I boarded the last train to Rome that same night.” This confirms his immediate departure.

Step 3: Confirming the Destination:
Therefore, after leaving Vienna, the author traveled directly to the city of Rome, Italy.

Answer 3

Step 1: Analyzing the Suggestibility of the Dream:
The author was deeply influenced by Frau Frieda's dream and her conviction, leading him to flee Vienna immediately on the last train to Rome.

Step 2: Evaluating the Concept of 'Catastrophe':
Even though no actual, physical disaster occurred in Vienna while he was there, the narrator's immediate flight was driven by the fear of a tragedy. Because he escaped this potential danger, he felt as if he had survived a real, physical catastrophe that he never actually had to experience.

Step 3: Synthesizing the Psychological State:
This phrase highlights the power of suggestion. He lived his life with the perspective of a survivor, forever marked by a disaster that existed only in Frau Frieda's warning dream.

Answer 4

Step 1: Assessing Frau Frieda's Typical Professional Boundaries:
Frau Frieda generally sold her dreams for profit to wealthy patrons, treating her ability as a business to secure financial stability.

Step 2: Contrast with Her Actions Toward the Author:
Despite her business-like approach, she sought out the author (then a poor student) to deliver her warning, showing that she did not expect payment for this advice.

Step 3: Drawing the Inference:
This action shows genuine care, affection, and protective concern for the author's well-being. She viewed him as a friend rather than a client, using her unique ability to keep him safe from harm.

Answer 5

Step 1: Evaluating the Long-Term Impact of the Warning:
Frau Frieda's warning instructed him to leave and “not come back to Vienna for five years.”

Step 2: Analyzing the Narrator's Psychological Block:
Even after the five-year period had passed, the author felt a persistent sense of caution. The idea that he was a survivor of a catastrophe he never experienced created a lasting psychological barrier.

Step 3: Concluding the Analytical Reason:
He did not return to Vienna because the influence of her prophecy remained strong, making him hesitant to test his luck or return to a place associated with an avoided tragedy.

Answer 6

Step 1: Defining the Context of the Word:
In the phrase “Her conviction was so real,” the word describes Frau Frieda's absolute belief and complete lack of doubt in the truth of her dream.

Step 2: Analyzing the Options:

• Principle refers to a fundamental truth, law, or moral rule.
• Ambiguity refers to uncertainty, doubt, or having double meanings (the opposite of conviction). Submission refers to yielding to authority or another's will.
• Certainty refers to absolute confidence, conviction, and a complete absence of doubt.

Step 3: Matching Key Attributes:
Therefore, “certainty” is the correct and precise synonym for conviction in this context.