PrepTest 147, Section 1, Question 19

What we’re looking for

Working the answers

• A

  This recommends deliberately avoiding complete faithfulness to either goal. The argument doesn't recommend how translators should work; it judges the result of an unavoidable compromise. A doesn't say that making that compromise produces a flawed approximation, so it doesn't supply the needed connection.

• B

  This starts by telling us what follows if a translation is flawed: it cannot count as a successful compromise. But being flawed is what we're trying to establish. We only know the two goals can't both be fully met; we don't independently know that the resulting compromise is unsuccessful. B doesn't give us a route from the stated limitation to the conclusion.

• C

  A highly skillful translation might favor meaning over style, or style over meaning, instead of striking the most even balance. That doesn't tell us whether its result should count as flawed. The missing link isn't about which balance is most skillful. It's about whether any failure to achieve both goals completely is enough to make the work a flawed approximation.

• D
  Correct

  This gives us exactly that link. The premise says no literary translation can be fully faithful to both meaning and style. D says any translation falling short of that combined standard is at best a flawed approximation. Apply the rule to the limitation we're given, and the conclusion follows even for the most skillful translation.

• E

  This largely repeats the limitation we've already accepted: even a very skillful translator can't completely preserve both goals. The unresolved question is why that limitation makes the translation flawed. Maybe a successful translation is supposed to be a thoughtful compromise. E doesn't rule out that way of judging it, while D supplies the standard under which every such compromise counts as flawed.