PrepTest 102, Section 1, Question 11
While a new surge of critical interest in(470 more words not shown)
The author of the passage(13 more words not shown)
- Aindicate that the(13 more words not shown)
- Bprove that poets(11 more words not shown)
- Cillustrate that the(8 more words not shown)
- Demphasize the problems(9 more words not shown)
- Eargue that poets(11 more words not shown)
Reading the passage
At first, this quotation seems to repeat the complaint we've already heard: critics study almost everything except the poetry. But why bring in something written in 1715?
What we’re looking for
Look at the sentence introducing it. Pope's observation was still applicable in 1970. That adds something to our first reaction: the same kind of complaint existed in an earlier century, too.
Working the answers
- A
Pope was English, but we aren't told that the critics he describes were all English. One complaint also doesn't establish how English critics have generally treated Homer.
- B
Pope criticizes the nonpoetic emphasis. He isn't an example of a poet who practices it. B confuses describing a tendency with taking part in it.
- CCorrect
The comparison says Pope’s observations fit 1970 just as well as 1715 (paragraph 1). That's evidence that this emphasis existed earlier, not just during the twentieth-century period under discussion. We don't need to assume it persisted unchanged every year in between.
- D
Nothing here concerns the difficulty of translating Greek into English. The issue is what critics study, not what translators can preserve.
- E
A poet's complaint about this particular tendency doesn't show that poets and critics have seldom agreed about poetry generally. That broader history of disagreement isn't provided.
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