GRE Question of the Day

Read the following passage and answer the question below.

Excerpt from Matthew Arnold’s “Literature and Science”

When I speak of knowing Greek and Roman antiquity, therefore, as a help to knowing ourselves and the world, I mean more than a knowledge of so much vocabulary, so much grammar, so many portions of authors in the Greek and Latin languages. I mean knowing the Greeks and Romans, and their life and genius, and what they were and did in the world; what we get from them, and what is its value. That, at least, is the ideal; and when we talk of endeavoring to know Greek and Roman antiquity, as a help to knowing ourselves and the world, we mean endeavoring so to know them as to satisfy this ideal, however much we may still fall short of it.

The same also as to knowing our own and other modern nations with the like aim of getting to understand ourselves and the world. To know the best that has been thought and said by the modern nations, is to know, says Professor Huxley, “only what modern literatures have to tell us; it is the criticism of life contained in modern literature.” And yet “the distinctive character of our times,” he urges, “lies in the vast and constantly increasing part which is played by natural knowledge.” And how, therefore, can a man, devoid of knowledge of what physical science has done in the last century enter hopefully upon a criticism of modern life?

The author of the passage thinks that knowing Greek and Roman culture is valuable because:

1. Scholars consider Greek and Roman literature the best in the world.
2. It is a culture that offers foundation and experience on an array of subjects that we can learn from in the present.
3. Latin is an important language to study in order to have a firm understanding of the natural sciences.
4. Greek and Roman culture were far superior to the culture of the authors’ time period.
5. The Greeks and Romans placed more importance on the humanities than on science.