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Information and IdeasVery hardCentral idea of a passage on translation

Information and Ideas practice question

A translator of poetry faces a choice that prose rarely forces. Preserve the meter and the meaning bends; preserve the meaning and the music goes. The best translations, in Adeyemi's view, do not resolve this tension so much as choose, line by line, which loss the reader will notice least, so that the poem arrives intact in effect if not in its parts.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

  1. A. Because poetry cannot be translated without loss, skilled translators decide at each point which loss matters least, aiming to preserve the poem's overall effect.Correct
  2. B. Prose is harder to translate than poetry.
  3. C. Translators should always preserve meter over meaning.
  4. D. Adeyemi believes poetry cannot be translated at all.

Answer: A. Because poetry cannot be translated without loss, skilled translators decide at each point which loss matters least, aiming to preserve the poem's overall effect.

Loss is unavoidable; the craft lies in choosing losses that preserve the effect.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. Prose is harder to translate than poetry.
The text says prose rarely forces this choice.
C. Translators should always preserve meter over meaning.
The text says the choice is made line by line, not always one way.
D. Adeyemi believes poetry cannot be translated at all.
Adeyemi describes how the best translations work.

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