Question

There was once a shoemaker who worked very hard but still could not earn enough to live on. Eventually, he had only enough leather left to make one pair of shoes.
2 The shoemaker cut out the leather, readying it for the next day, and went to bed. In the morning, he sat himself down to his work—when, to his great wonder, there stood the shoes upon the table, already made. The shoemaker did not know what to think.
3 That same day, a customer came in, and the shoes suited him so well that he willingly paid a higher price than usual for them. The poor shoemaker used the money to buy enough leather to make two more pairs. In the evening, he cut out his work and went to bed early, but when he got up in the morning, the work was done. This went on for some time. Before long, the shoemaker’s business was thriving, and he became affluent. why don’t I make each of them a set of nice clothes and you make them a little pair of shoes?”
7 When all of the items were ready, the couple laid them on the table, in place of the work they used to leave out. The couple hid, and at about midnight, the elves came in, dancing and skipping before finally sitting down to do their work. When the elves saw the clothes and shoes laid out for them instead, they were delighted!
8 The elves dressed themselves and sprang about, as merry as could be, until they danced out the door.
9 The good couple never saw them again, but everything went well from that time on as long as they lived.
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Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm. “The Elves and the Shoemaker.” Translated by Margaret Hunt; 1884.

Selection 2: Uh, Thanks for the Help?

1 Randall Smith, owner of Security Now, shook his head as he surveyed his store. What a mess!
2 A month ago, his accountant had reminded him that he was required to perform an inventory at the end of the year. Randall had gratefully accepted the help of his “creative” nephew, Jared, the graphic artist. Turned out Jared had been a little too creative in his labeling, and Randall found himself opening boxes just to find out what was inside. Then, with just a week to go, Miguel, Randall’s assistant, decided he needed time off to study for his finals.
3 With only days before the deadline, Randall surveyed the disorder. Opened boxes filled with cameras, locks, and keypads were strewn about the storeroom floor. Incomplete inventory sheets were pinned to half the shelves. Randall wasn’t sure how he was going get everything in order by the weekend. Never enough help when you need it, he grumbled.
4 Randall finished off an aisle in the storeroom, then went home for dinner. Returning an hour later, he opened the storeroom door and stood frozen in shock. The room had been thoroughly straightened up. All the boxes were arranged in neat rows. Unpacked components were neatly sorted by type and manufacturer. Did Miguel come by? he thought, numbly. But he doesn’t have a key. Had someone broken in? But who would bother breaking in to—help?
5 Randall completed inventory of another aisle in the storeroom. On a sudden inspiration, he set up a few of the new security cameras around the store, and then left for the night.
6 Around midnight, Randall was awoken by an alert on his phone. There was movement inside the store! Fingers trembling, he opened the app to link to the video feed.
7 What he saw left him speechless. Small gnome-like creatures swarmed up the storeroom shelves. As the gnomes on the shelves called out model numbers, the ones standing below checked them off on their clipboards. Others checked off the contents of the opened boxes, and then repacked and reshelved the boxes.

Which answer choice best compares the plot structures of Selection 1 and Selection 2?
A. Selection 1 tells all events in linear order. Selection 2 starts in medias res with Randall looking at his store, flashes back to earlier events, and then returns to linear order.
B. Selection 1 tells all events in linear order. Selection 2 flashes back to Randall looking at his store, then returns to linear order, and concludes in medias res.
C. Selection 1 starts in medias res with the shoemaker’s cutting out the leather, flashes back to earlier events, and then returns to linear order. Selection 2 tells all events in linear order.
D. Selection 1 flashes back to the shoemaker’s cutting out the leather, then returns to linear order, and concludes in medias res. Selection 2 tells all events in linear order

Answer 1

A. Selection 1 is told in straightforward chronological order. Selection 2 opens in the middle of the action (Randall surveying the mess), then flashes back ("A month ago...") for background, and returns to the present to continue the story.