Which one of the following statements concerning the relationship between English and Continental writers of the Rena...

AndreaK on April 11, 2020

Hi jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com, I'm having trouble seeing this one on my end. Do you happen to have the test/section/question number?

jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com on April 12, 2020

December 2001 SEC 2 Q9 . Thanks

shunhe on April 13, 2020

Hi @jingjingxiao11111@gmail.com,

Thanks for the question! This question is asking us which of the answer choices can be inferred from the passage, all of which concern the relationship between English and Continental writers of the Renaissance era. For this, we can turn to the second paragraph of the passage.

First, we’ll discuss the correct answer choice, so you can see why it is the best answer choice. Here, (D) is the correct answer choice, which tells us two things: (1) that scholars have underestimated the strength of intellectual ties between English and Continental writers, and (2) that these intellectual ties were founded on a mutual knowledge of Latin.

We can find evidence for both these premises in lines 33-42, where we’re told that they [the scholars] underestimated the influence on English writers of counterparts on the European continent, and that English writers had many ties to Latin writings and intellectual thought.

Now let’s take a look at (A), which tells us that Continental writers wrote in Latin more frequently than English writers, which made some of the most important Continental works inaccessible to English readers. This is wrong for several reasons. One, we’re never told anywhere in the passage about the relative frequency of Latin writing between Continental writers and English writers. We also know that even if these works were written in Latin, it wouldn’t necessarily shut them off to English readers, who were steeped in Latin literature, and whose intellectuals were educated in schools and universities where they read and spoke Latin (lines 38-39). We also aren’t even told that the most important continental works were written in Latin, which is another assumption that needs to be made. Because (A) relies on too many assumptions and also flat-out contradicts the passage, it must be wrong.

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask any further questions that you might have.