The nature of English literature reflects the rich and diverse vocabul

As is the case with many inference questions, the author isn’t giving us an explicit logical argument with a nice conclusion, but we do end up with straightforward descriptions of the English and French languages. Let’s break them both down, making sure that we’re not getting sloppy with the language.

For English:

• Anglo-Saxon was the first influence on English language.
• Later, French became a second influence on English language.
• English language has a rich and diverse vocabulary.
• English literature reflects that rich and diverse vocabulary.

And for French:

• Latin is the main influence on French language.
• Celtic may have been around France before Latin, but only trace amounts of it show in French language. So French is really all about its Latin roots.
• French literature reflects simplicity and clarity.

There’s nothing terribly complex in this passage, but the most common error we see on this question is when test-takers fail to notice which descriptions refer to the English and French languages, and which describe the literature. More on that in a moment.

So… which one of the following can be most reasonably inferred from the information above?


Choice (A) looks fine. The passage states that the diverse vocabulary of English language is reflected in English literature. This diversity is caused by the fact that English language evolved from two different root languages (Anglo-Saxon and French). Therefore, these diverse origins have shaped English literature.

And here’s the most common mistake we see on this passage: (A) just seems too darned obvious. We didn’t have to work hard to “infer” that (A) is true, so maybe it’s not really correct. But that’s a dangerous way to think about inference questions, as we discussed in this video: all you need to do is find the four answer choices that are NOT true, and eliminate them. Don’t overthink the definition of “infer” or “inference.”

Anyway, (A) is totally reasonable, so let’s keep it and see if we can eliminate the other choices.


Nothing in our breakdown compares the richness of English and French vocabularies. We know that English has a rich vocabulary, but the passage says nothing about how rich the French vocabulary is, let alone how that compares to the richness of English vocabulary. Let’s eliminate choice (B).


Nothing in our breakdown compares the size of English and French vocabularies. While the author says that French literature is distinguished by simplicity and clarity, this doesn’t really tell us much about how many words are in the French language, nor how it compares to the English language.

So we can eliminate choice (C).


This leap of logic goes way beyond the information we’re given about French and English. There are tons of languages and literary traditions in the world beyond these two languages, and the passage doesn’t connect these statements about French and English to the (much broader!) act of writing ALL literature. It’s a HUGE stretch to say that simple and clear literature cannot be written in languages with a diverse vocabulary, so we can eliminate (D).


We know that the French language has had a major impact on the English language. However, nothing in the passage discusses how English and French literature have influenced each other.

So (E) is out, and (A) is our answer.
 
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IMO, The answer is C.

Combining the information provided in the first sentence, which mentions that the vocabulary of English has been influenced by both Anglo-Saxon and French languages. Hence, it can be correctly inferred that the vocabulary of English is greater than the vocabulary of French.

None of the other options can be correctly inferred from the passage.

A. The origin of English played a role in shaping English literature. --- not sure if it is true but cant eliminate it either at first glance , lets keep it.

B. The vocabulary of the Anglo-Saxon language was richer than that of the French language. --- not sufficient info provided. may be or may be not.

C. The vocabulary of English is larger than the vocabulary of French. --- not sufficient info provided. may be or may be not.

D. Simple and clear literature cannot be written in a language with a rich and diverse vocabulary. ---- too extreme to be true

E. English literature and French literature have had little infulence on one another. --- wrong .... English is influenced from french, the other way is not true.

(A) seems the best answer among all.

IMO A
Since the first line says 'resulted from' dual Lang. (I. E the origin)

Posted from my mobile device

A. The origin of English played a role in shaping English literature.: CAN BE INFERRED FROM FIRST SENTENCE. A CONNECTION IS WELL ESTABLISHED BETWEEN ENGLISH LITERATURE AND ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

B. The vocabulary of the Anglo-Saxon language was richer than that of the French language.: IRRELEVANT COMPARISON, NOT DISCUSSED

C. The vocabulary of English is larger than the vocabulary of French.: SAME AS B, CANNOT PASS FACT TEST

D. Simple and clear literature cannot be written in a languae with a rich and diverse vocabulary.: TOO EXTREME

E. English literature and French literature have had little infulence on one another.: OPPOSITE

Awaiting OA. IMO answer should be A

The nature of English literature reflects the rich and diverse vocabulary of the English language, which resulted from the dual influence of the Anglo-Saxon and, later, French languages. The French language, though, is a direct descendant of Latin, with few traces of the Celtic language spoken by the pre-Roman inhabitants of the area: the hallmark of French literature is its simplicity and clarity.

Which one of the following can be most reasonably inferred from the information above?

A. The origin of English played a role in shaping English literature. --Correct. The nature of English literature reflects the richness and diversity in language. Diversity and richness was derived from French and Anglo-Saxon languages. So we can say that the origin has had some impact on the English literature.

B. The vocabulary of the Anglo-Saxon language was richer than that of the French language. --We can't say that. These two languages are different and we can't comment on the vocabulary of either language.

C. The vocabulary of English is larger than the vocabulary of French. --We can't say that. These two languages are different and we can't comment on the vocabulary of either language. Remember, entire French language is not the sub set of English.

D. Simple and clear literature cannot be written in a languae with a rich and diverse vocabulary. --Exaggerated statement

E. English literature and French literature have had little infulence on one another. --We can't say from the argument whether English has had any influence on French literature.

IMO B. and I think I am pretty sure about it. But seeing all the different types of answers, am a little confused.
Please post the OA.

At first I thought B was the better answer. Looking again however, A is simpler and more elegant as a solution. The problems with both B and C are that they both make large logic leaps...which in assumption type questions is usually incorrect. Hope this helps.

C cannot be inferred from the passage and here's why. It says that English was INFLUENCED BY French and Anglo-saxon, it isn't a UNION (in mathematical terms) of Anglo-Saxon and French. It could have taken a few words/phrases from French and Anglo-Saxon and still have been smaller in corpus than the entirety of French language.

In other words, it CANNOT be inferred that "English = All of Anglo-Saxon + All of French

The nature of English literature reflects the rich and diverse vocabulary of the English language, which resulted from the dual influence of the Anglo-Saxon and, later, French languages. The French language, though, is a direct descendant of Latin, with few traces of the Celtic language spoken by the pre-Roman inhabitants of the area: the hallmark of French literature is its simplicity and clarity.

Which one of the following can be most reasonably inferred from the information above?

A. The origin of English played a role in shaping English literature. - Best choice as it is clearly mentioned that English literature reflects the rich and diverse vocabulary of the English language.

B. The vocabulary of the Anglo-Saxon language was richer than that of the French language. - It is nowhere mentioned that one vocabulary is richer than another so eliminated

C. The vocabulary of English is larger than the vocabulary of French. - Size of vocabulary is also nowhere compared in the passage so eliminated

D. Simple and clear literature cannot be written in a language with a rich and diverse vocabulary. - Out of Scope

E. English literature and French literature have had little influence on one another - Nowhere it is mentioned that English and French literatures have influence on each other. Only thing mentioned is they have a little impact so eliminated

Hence best choice Option A

Hope its clear puja priya

I chose option D as my answer. The passage was basically talking about the fact that English literature resulted from 2 different influences. It did not talk about the role played by English literature. Hence, was unable to understand why option A is the correct answer. Could someone help to shed some light on this? Thanks

Take a look at this post, which addresses both (A) and (D), and let me know if you have any lingering questions!
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Dear GMATNinja,

It may be very basic question ,but can you please clarify my doubt.
I chose Option C. Because I thought English itself combined the vocabulary of the Anglo-Saxon language as well as the French language ( which could be implied from the argument). So the "Set of English words" are greater than subset of French and Anglo Saxon. Thus the vocabulary of English is larger than the vocabulary of French.

I discarded Option A because it is talking about the shaping of whole English literature . I thought the given information in the argument is not enough to comment on the shaping of English literature. We need to know more about the history of English literature . So it could be out of scope .

We are told that the English language was INFLUENCED by "the Anglo-Saxon and, later, French languages," but that doesn't mean that the English language is simply the "sum" of all Anglo-Saxon words and all French words. English could in fact have fewer words than either of the languages that influenced it.

By telling us that English "resulted from the dual influence of the Anglo-Saxon and, later, French languages," the passage does in fact give us some information about how the language was shaped. We don't know the entire history of the language, but we know SOMETHING about its origin: it was influenced by those two languages. This aspect of the language's origin resulted in English's "rich and diverse vocabulary", which is in turn reflected in the literature.

So we can absolutely say that "the origin of English played a role in shaping English literature" (choice A).

I hope that helps!
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I don't think that influence should be construed as origination.

Since English got influenced by two languages, whether we can interpret that English was originated from them, as mentioned in option A ?

I didn't find anything negative about option A rather there is information which strengthen option A.
B. It is not said in the passage that the vocabulary of the Anglo-Saxon language was richer than that of the French language. OUT
C. The passage only said English literature has a rich and diverse vocabulary. It's not said that French has so. OUT.
D. Rather opposite OUT
E. The passage said the French have an impact on English but it's extent is not defined. OUT

The answer is A.

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