|Question 13Verbal

Source Texts

Text
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a circa poem written in Middle English—an archaic form of the English spoken today. Over the last several centuries, the English language has undergone such transformations in vocabulary, spelling, and grammar that most readers now rely on translations to read Sir Gawain. In the introduction to his translation, Simon Armitage remarks that the sonic patterns of the poem, which was written in alliterative verse (a verse form featuring extensive repetition of initial consonant sounds), are essential to its structure. Because many Modern English words begin with different sounds than their Middle English equivalents do, a strictly literal translation of Sir Gawain would therefore likely _____
Which choice most logically completes the text?
be more faithful to the original intentions of the poem than most strictly literal translations of alliterative Middle English poems are to their originals.
A
appeal more to modern readers than would translations like Armitage's that instead prioritize the original text's sonic and structural qualities.
B
be preferable to modern readers who are primarily interested in learning what the poem reveals about historical conditions during the time it was originally written.
C
preserve much of the original text's meaning at the expense of other qualities that are also integral to the experience of reading the poem.
D