PrepTest 105, Section 1, Question 1
Tennyson's line of poetry "nature, red in tooth(74 more words not shown)
Which one of the following(9 more words not shown)
- AThe line of(15 more words not shown)
- BThe dominant biological(10 more words not shown)
- CTennyson's line of(12 more words not shown)
- DDarwin's theory of(12 more words not shown)
- ETennyson's line of(10 more words not shown)
Reading the argument
How do we know what Tennyson meant? The line is hard to interpret on its own. “Red in tooth and claw” might bring violence to mind, but that doesn't tell us whether Tennyson intended a reference to Darwin. The author says readers who interpret it that way have “misconstrued” it: they have misunderstood it.
The dates give that claim some support. The poem appeared in 1850, nine years before Darwin published the theory he had kept closely held. If Tennyson didn't know the theory, he couldn't deliberately refer to it.
Could he have known privately? Perhaps he and Darwin were friends and Darwin shared his work. That's a possibility, not something the passage establishes. It shows why publication dates aren't an absolute guarantee about what someone knew. The author also offers a second reason: the rest of the poem points to a creationist theory instead.
What we’re looking for
Now we're asked for the main point. We don't have to settle every objection to identify it. Both the timing and the poem's context are meant to show that the line wasn't a reference to Darwin's theory. The first sentence makes that claim; the later sentences give reasons to believe it.
Working the answers
- A
A line can be a fitting description of something the poet never intended to describe. Someone today might find Tennyson's language useful for talking about evolution even if Tennyson meant something else. The argument concerns the intended reference, not whether the words could now serve as an apt description.
- B
The passage does say the dominant biological theory was creationist. That is part of the support: it helps identify what Tennyson was referring to instead. The author isn't mainly trying to establish which theory dominated the period.
- C
The publication sequence is evidence for the interpretation. Why does the author tell us the poem came first? To make a reference to Darwin seem unlikely. C stops at the supporting fact rather than stating the point that fact supports.
- D
This fits the historical setting described, but it isn't the claim the author is trying to establish. The point concerns the meaning of Tennyson's line, not a ranking of biological theories by popularity.
- ECorrect
This is the claim the two pieces of support lead toward. The poem came before Darwin made his theory public, and its surrounding context points to a different theory. Those are the author's reasons for saying that the evolutionists have misunderstood the line.
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