Latin Texts

Answer choices

1. A

   Unknown Comparison: more frequently Contradicted: inaccessible14% picked this

   Continental writers wrote in Latin more frequently than did English writers, and thus rendered some of the most important Continental

   While our common sense might suggest that Continental writers wrote in Latin more often than did English writers, we're explicitly told that the English writers went to schools and universities where they "spoke and wrote Latin", so it's possible that these English writers wrote in Latin a ton. More importantly, it would be hard to argue that any text written in Latin was inaccessible to English readers, since we know that English-speaking people of the time also spoke and wrote Latin.

   14%
2. B

   Unknown Comparison3% picked this

   Continental writers, more intellectually advanced than their English counterparts, were on the whole responsible for familiarizing English audiences

   Unknown Comparison: more advanced Too Strong: on the whole responsible The passage doesn't allow us to make this broad generalization that Continental writers were more intellectually advanced than their English counterparts. The passage is just saying that lots of intellectually advanced stuff happened in Latin-only texts, which modern scholars have tended to overlook. It's also too strong to say that Continental writers were the main causal source of familiarizing English audiences with Latin language and literature. Maybe it was university professors who were the main causal source. Maybe it was the Catholic church, which was the most powerful cultural institution for centuries and used (even uses to this day) Latin extensively.

   3%
3. C

   Too Strong: mostly different6% picked this

   English and Continental writers communicated their intellectual concerns, which were for the most part different, by way of

   We don't have any support text that would allow us to say that English and Continental writers had, for the most part, different intellectual concerns. The passage seems to be painting the opposite picture: the English writers inhabited an intellectual world in which what what happened abroad and was recorded in Latin was of great importance. Writers traditionally considered English and modern were steeped in Latin literature and in the esoteric concerns of late Renaissance humanism. It also seems to be an overstatement to say that English writers communicated their intellectual concerns by way of works written in Latin. They definitely wrote some stuff in Latin, but it seems like they also wrote some stuff in English.

   6%
4. D

   Correct70% picked this

   The intellectual ties between English and Continental writers were stronger than has been acknowledged by many scholars and were founded on

   Why this is right

   In the second sentence of the 2nd paragraph, it says, Binns argues that these scholars treat the English-language writings .... as an autonomous and coherent whole, underestimating the influence on English writers of their counterparts on the European Continent. In so doing they ignore the fact that ... The author / passage implicitly accepts Binns' views and agrees with him, so this sentence gives us support for "the intellectual ties were stronger than is acknowledged by many scholars". Was it founded on a mutual knowledge of Latin? For sure. The rest of the 2nd paragraph stresses how the English writers studied, spoke, and wrote in Latin. They inhabited a world concerned with Latin-language issues. Many Latin works by Continental humanists became the bases of classic English works of literature and scholarship.

   Skill tested: Inference · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

   70%
5. E

   Opposite8% picked this

   The intellectual ties between English and Continental writers have been overemphasized in modern scholarship due to a lack of dialogue between

   The main point of the passage is that due to a lack of dialogue between language specialists and intellectual historians, the intellectual ties between English and Continental writers has been underemphasized / overlooked.

   8%