What is the passage mainly about?Origin… | [국회직 8급 영어] 18년 1회차 기출문제 상세 페이지

What is the passage mainly about?
Originality is what distinguishes art from craft. It is the yardstick of artistic greatness or importance. Unfortunately, it is also very hard to define what originality is. The usual synonyms such as uniqueness, novelty, and freshness do not help us much, and the dictionaries tell us only that an original work must not be a copy. Thus, if we want to rate works of art on an “originality scale” our problem does not lie in deciding whether or not a given work is original but in establishing just exactly how original it is. To do that is not impossible. However, the difficulties besetting our task is so great that we cannot hope for more than tentative and complete answers, which does not mean, of course, that we should not try. Quite contrarily, for whatever the outcome of our labors in any particular case, we shall certainly learn a great deal about works of art in the process.

Though incomplete, it is significant to measure the degree of originality in art.

Originality can be applied to measure artistic value in a relative way.

A work of art is original as long as it is not a complete copy.

The task of establishing originality scale is not worth pursuing for practical reasons.

The inaccuracy of originality scale is greater than the benefit of using it anyway.

지문의 중심 내용은 “Though incomplete, it is significant to measure the degree of originality in art.”(불완전하더라도 예술의 독창성 정도를 측정하는 일은 의미가 있다)이다.
글쓴이는 독창성의 정도를 정하는 일이 어렵고 잠정적인 답밖에 얻지 못한다면서도 “which does not mean, of course, that we should not try”(그렇다고 시도하지 말아야 한다는 뜻은 아니다)라고 하고, 그 과정에서 “we shall certainly learn a great deal”(분명 많은 것을 배운다)고 맺는다. 즉 불완전해도 시도할 가치가 있다는 것이 요지다.
“Originality can be applied to measure artistic value in a relative way.”는 독창성이 잣대라는 도입부만 반영할 뿐, 어려워도 시도해야 한다는 결론을 담지 못한다.
“A work of art is original as long as it is not a complete copy.”는 사전 정의를 옮긴 것인데, 지문은 이런 설명이 별 도움이 안 된다고 말한다.
“The task of establishing originality scale is not worth pursuing for practical reasons.”는 시도해야 한다는 글쓴이의 입장과 반대다.
“The inaccuracy of originality scale is greater than the benefit of using it anyway.”도 얻는 바가 크다는 결론과 어긋난다.