Questions 15 to 17 refer to the passage below. For each question, select one answer
choice, unless the instructions state otherwise.If we ask ourselves wherein consists the immense superiority of
Chaucer’s poetry over the romance-poetry—why it is that in passing
from this to Chaucer we suddenly feel ourselves to be in another world,
we shall find that his superiority is both in the substance of his poetry
and in the style of his poetry. His superiority in substance is given
by his large, free, simple, and clear yet kindly view of human life—so
unlike the total want, in the romance-poets, of all intelligent command
of it. Chaucer has not their helplessness; he has gained the power to
survey the world from a central, a truly human point of view. We
have only to call to mind the Prologue to The Canterbury Tales. The
right comment upon it is Dryden’s: “It is sufficient to say, according to
the proverb, that here is God’s plenty.” And again: “He is a perpetual
fountain of good sense.” It is by a large, free, sound representation of
things, that poetry, this high criticism of life, has truth of substance;
and Chaucer’s poetry has truth of substance.- In the context of the passage, “want” most nearly means
A deficit
B desire
C intelligibility
D avarice
E dedication - Which of the following would be an appropriate title for the passage?
A “Chaucer’s Influence on the Romance Poets”
B “Romance Poetry: From Chaucer to Dryden”
C “Chaucer Versus the Romance Poets: An Examination of Chaucer’s
Supremacy”
D “Chaucer’s Examination of Human Life”
E “The Canterbury Tales and Their Place in Chaucer’s Ouevre” - Select the sentence in the passage in which the author uses evidence
to support an assertion about the difference between Chaucer and the
romance poets.
51015488 PART 5 ■ GRE PRACTICE TESTS05-GRE-Test-2018_463-582.indd 488 12/05/17 12:14 pm