Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow.
Such is the matter of imaginative or artistic literature – this transcript, not of mere fact, but of fact in its infinite variety, as modified by human preference in all its infinitely varied forms. It will be good literary art not because it is brilliant or sober, or rich, or impulsive, or severe, but just in proportion as its representation of that sense, that soul fact is true, verse being only one department of such literature, and imaginative prose, it may be thought, being the special art of the modern world, that imaginative prose should be the special and opportune art of the modern world results from two important facts about the latter: first the chaotic variety and complexity of its interests, making the intellectual issue. The really master currents of the present time incalculable- a condition of mind little susceptible of the restraint proper to verse form, so that the most characteristic verse of the nineteenth century has been lawless verse, and secondly, an all pervading naturalism, a curiosity about everything whatever, as it really is involving a certain humility of attitude, cognate to what must, after all, be the less ambitious form of literature. And prose thus asserting itself as the special and privileged artistic faculty of the present day, will be however critics may try to narrow its scope, as varied in its excellence as humanity itself reflecting on the facts of its latest experience – an instrument of many stops, meditative, observant descriptive, eloquent, analytic, plaintive. Fervid.
According to the author, prose should be:
Correct Answer :
As varied as human experience
Solution :
The correct option is: As varied as human experience.
Let us analyze the passage step-by-step to understand why this option is correct:
The passage describes artistic or imaginative literature as a transcript of "fact in its infinite variety, as modified by human preference in all its infinitely varied forms."
Towards the end of the passage, the author directly discusses the nature and scope of prose in the modern world:
"And prose thus asserting itself as the special and privileged artistic faculty of the present day, will be however critics may try to narrow its scope, as varied in its excellence as humanity itself reflecting on the facts of its latest experience – an instrument of many stops, meditative, observant descriptive, eloquent, analytic, plaintive. Fervid."
The author explicitly states that prose will be "as varied in its excellence as humanity itself reflecting on the facts of its latest experience". This directly matches the option "As varied as human experience". Therefore, according to the author, prose should reflect this rich variety and not be confined or narrowed in its scope.
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