Lyle: Admittedly, modernizing the language of premodern plays lessens their aesthetic quality, but such modernizing r...

GabiKolb on December 4, 2019

Yes, I am having trouble with this too. They seem very similar. Can we get this answered please?

BenMingov on December 4, 2019

Hi Tomgbean and Madisanbryant, thanks for the question!

I completely see the confusion here. They did this on purpose, of course. Before we look at the answer choices (namely, B and D), let's see if we can pinpoint exactly where the two disagree.

Lyle says that modernizing is valuable for teaching history, while Carl says that modernizing plays serves no use for teaching history. That is a clear, not so subtle disagreement. What they did is incorporated the idea of aesthetics in answer choice B to confuse test takers.

If we play close attention to the arguments presented, Carl never even mentions aesthetic quality. This immediately signals that answer choice B is incorrect, because we cannot know whether he would agree or disagree with a statement regarding aesthetic quality.

Moreover, Lyle himself never discusses the impact of aesthetic quality on the teaching value of modernized plays. All he said was modernizing plays reduces aesthetic value, but nevertheless these modernized plays remain valuable for teaching history. They can still be just as valuable for teaching history (perhaps even more so due to increased comprehension), albeit the aesthetic value decreased.

I hope this helped, please let me know if you have any other questions.