Latin vs Spanish Poetry

Answer choices

1. A

   Unsupported Causal Relationship5% picked this

   A tradition of cultural conservatism has allowed the Spanish language to evolve into a stable,

   The passage does tell us that the writers in Spain have a lot of cultural conservatism (3rd paragraph), and the passage does tell us that poets in Spain don't experiment much with language. So we could maybe say that for them Spanish is a "stable, reliable form of expression". But those two concepts are never causally connected in the passage. And this answer isn't restricting itself to just the Spaniards. It's talking about the Spanish language in general.

   5%
2. B

   Too Strong: only recently2% picked this

   It was only recently that Latin American poetry began to incorporate elements

   With loaded language like "only recently", we would need a good support sentence. We hear in the 2nd sentence that, "The Spanish of Latin American poets is more open than that of Spanish poets, more exposed to outside influences ? English, French, and other languages". So, yes, Latin American poets incorporate elements from other languages, but it sounds like a "timeless" description, not an "only recently" description.

   2%
3. C

   Correct70% picked this

   The cultural conservatism of Spanish poetry is exemplified by the uncritical attitude of Spanish poets

   Why this is right

   The 3rd paragraph begins by talking about how Spanish poetry displays a kind of cultural conservatism, a desire to return to the ideal culture of the distant past. The 2nd paragraph talks about how Spanish poets don't experiment on tinker with their language much. Latin American poetry is critical or irreverent towards language, but Spanish poets are more accepting. They "take their language for granted", accepting it uncritically. The passage does not causally link these two things, but the answer choice also doesn't. Rather, the answer is just saying that what we heard in the 2nd paragraph is a manifestation of the cultural conservatism we're hearing about in the 3rd paragraph. Spanish poets have a long rich history. They like that culture. They like that language. They want to conserve it. They would like to keep writing the same poems about the same shared history, using the same Spanish they inherited. So basically this correct answer is asking our common sense to infer that what we talked about in the 2nd is an example of the more general trait of being culturally conservative.

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

   70%
4. D

   Trap15% picked this

   Latin American poets’ interest in other world cultures is illustrated by their use of Japanese

   Starts Right, Ends Wrong Out of Scope: Japanese words/phrases If this ended "... by their use of Japanese poetry forms", it would be totally pickable. But we only heard about them using the haiku poetry form. We never heard about any Latin American poets using any Japanese words in their works.

   15%
5. E

   Out of Scope: receptive to outsiders8% picked this

   Spanish poetry is receptive to the influence of some Spanish-language poets

   This answer is very attractive because it has super low burden of proof. For this answer to be wrong, it would have to be that "Spanish poetry isn't receptive to the influence of any Spanish-speaking poet who lives outside of Spain." That's too extreme to be realistic. There must be at least one Spanish-speaking poet who lives outside of Spain that poets in Spain would be receptive to. However, as reasonable and safe as that idea is, there's just not a single shred of evidence we can point to in the passage. The passage portrays Spanish poets as being "less open / less exposed to outside influences". They are culturally conservative and look inward at Spain's idealized past.

   8%