Single correct option
The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.
A translator is often praised for invisibility: the best translation, the saying goes, reads as though it had been written in the target language. But this ideal carries a hidden cost. A text smoothed into perfect idiomatic English loses the traces of its origin—the unfamiliar rhythms, images and assumptions that made it worth translating in the first place. Some translators therefore deliberately preserve a degree of strangeness, reminding readers that they are encountering another culture rather than a reflection of their own.
A translator is often praised for invisibility: the best translation, the saying goes, reads as though it had been written in the target language. But this ideal carries a hidden cost. A text smoothed into perfect idiomatic English loses the traces of its origin—the unfamiliar rhythms, images and assumptions that made it worth translating in the first place. Some translators therefore deliberately preserve a degree of strangeness, reminding readers that they are encountering another culture rather than a reflection of their own.
- A. Translations should always be literal so that readers can learn about the source language.
- B. The ideal of an invisible, perfectly idiomatic translation can erase what is distinctive in a foreign text, so some translators deliberately keep a degree of foreignness.
- C. Readers prefer translations that sound foreign because such translations feel more authentic.
- D. A good translator is invisible, and the skill lies in making the text read as if it were written in English.
Show answer and solution
Answer: (B) The ideal of an invisible, perfectly idiomatic translation can erase what is distinctive in a foreign text, so some translators deliberately keep a degree of foreignness.
The passage makes three moves: (1) the usual ideal is an invisible, fully idiomatic translation; (2) this erases what is distinctive about the original; (3) so some translators keep some foreignness on purpose. Option 2 covers all three.
- Option 1 goes too far ('always literal') and adds a purpose, learning the source language, that the passage does not give.
- Option 3 is about reader preference, which the passage never discusses.
- Option 4 states only the conventional ideal that the passage goes on to question.
- Option 1 goes too far ('always literal') and adds a purpose, learning the source language, that the passage does not give.
- Option 3 is about reader preference, which the passage never discusses.
- Option 4 states only the conventional ideal that the passage goes on to question.
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