b. Playing on Coach Lerner’s team is like being
under the command of an army general.
c. Coach Lerner is a terrible basketball coach.
Answer The correct answer is b, “Playing on Coach Lerner’s
team is like being under the command of an army gen-
eral.” There are many clues in the language of this para-
graph that lead you to this inference. First, you probably
noticed that Coach Lerner’s voice “booms like a
foghorn.” This comparison (called a simile) suggests
that Coach Lerner wants his voice to be heard and
obeyed.
Second, the description of Coach Lerner’s haircut
is a critical part of the way the author establishes the
tone of this paragraph. To say that he has “the haircut
of a drill sergeant” (also a simile) makes us think of a
military leader whose job it is to train soldiers. A writer
wouldn’t use this comparison unless he or she wanted
to emphasize military-like discipline.
The author tells us that Coach Lerner “marches
onto the basketball court,” “barks orders,” and expects
his players to respond like “troops on a battlefield.”
The writer could have said that Coach Lerner “strides”
onto the court, that he barks “instructions,” and that he
expects his players to act like “trained dogs.” However,
since the author is trying to paint a picture of Coach
Lerner that will bring to mind a military leader, he
uses words that convey military ideas. Thus, though
answers a and c may be true—it might be difficult to
play for Coach Lerner and he might be a terrible bas-
ketball coach—answer b is the only idea that all of the
sentences in the paragraph support.
Of course, this person’s description of Coach
Lerner is very subjective, using as it does the first-
person point of view. As an active reader, you should
wonder whether everyone sees Coach Lerner this way
or if this player is unable to be objective.
