PrepTest 116, Section 1, Question 19

Working the answers

• A

  Additional insight supports the writer's case. Historical interpretations that produced it are a reason to value this approach, not a reason to reject it.

• B
  Correct

  Conflicting interpretations alone wouldn't do it. The important part is that they collectively diminish understanding. Is that the kind of damage that matters here? Yes: the final paragraph calls personal interpretations “useful in understanding the works.” If this method instead leaves us understanding less, it works against the purpose for which the writer defends it.

  The problem isn't merely disagreement. The writer welcomes different perspectives when they add insight. B says the result is a loss of understanding.

• C

  A unified view is what the formalists want. The writer doesn't accept that every work needs one interpretation, so failing to supply one doesn't undercut this defense.

• D

  This repeats the theorists' opening claim. We might dislike it ourselves, but restating it supplies no new reason the approach fails to produce useful insight.

• E

  Meanings beyond the author's intention are compatible with this approach. Being unintended doesn't establish that a meaning is unhelpful or invalid.