Passage
First of all, the notion that more than one author was responsible for the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey may fail to account adequately for the artistic unity and linguistic cohesion that mark these two works. The idea of dual authorship instead privileges the inconsistencies between the texts stressed by late 19 th - and early 20 th -century scholars who suggested that the two epics are not, in fact, the work of a single poetic genius. The promulgation of this theory served to undermine an earlier fundamentalist faith in a consensus from antiquity: one and only one poet called Homer authored both poems.Second of all, even if more than one author existed under the guise of Homer, there is no denying that these epics represent the culmination of a long tradition of oral poetry-specifically, oral verse concerning the Trojan War. The existence of this oral tradition has sometimes been used to speculate that the texts we have of the Iliad and the Odyssey were merely strung together from shorter poems about warrior-heroes sung by itinerant bards to regale the aristocratic courts of ancient Greece. In this context, the name "Homer" has been explained as a generic designation signifying either a group of ancient singer-poets or an imaginary author to whom a collective body of oral poetry was attributed.That epic poems of more than 12,000 lines could have been recited from memory has been well documented. Research undertaken at the beginning of the 20 th century identified singers in the Balkans who could perform monumental epic poems from memory. These performers seemed to have memorized discrete episodes or sections of poetry, arranging these as they recited. Since then, it has been almost universally recognized that any theory about Homeric authorship must accommodate the oral tradition.Today many scholars find it unlikely that the same individual composed both Homeric epics. Compellingly, even the ancient consensus that there was just one author cannot be traced further back than about 520 BCE when the two poems-which had been committed to writing in their recognizable form sometime after the introduction of the alphabet to Greece in the 8 th century BCE-were recited by bards at the festival of Athena. Prior to this, there had already been some controversy regarding the authorship of the poems. In particular, an alternative tradition claimed that the Odyssey had been written by the poet Melesigenes, who then appropriated the name Homer.Likewise, leading Homericists now conjecture more specifically that one poet wrote the Iliad and that the Odyssey was composed sometime later by a second. This theory rests on two basic premises: (1) Each poem has its own well-defined and unified design that discredits the possibility it is merely a pastiche of shorter poems passed down orally and finally stabilized in written form; and (2) differences between the poems seem to point to separate authors. Scholars cite not only linguistic inconsistencies, including differences in vocabulary, but also discrepancies in background, underlying beliefs, ethics, and even geographical orientation. Intriguingly, researchers have also found evidence in the Odyssey of imitation of passages from the Iliad.A few skeptics, however, continue to insist that the stylistic similarities between the two epics ascribed to Homer are too striking to support a theory of multiple authorship. Far from clinging to idealistic notions of artistry or outdated modes of manuscript study, these single-author theorists have combined information technology and analysis of linguistic style to produce a legitimate body of evidence they can marshal against the prevailing trend.
West, Martin. "The Homeric Question Today," in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol 155. No. 4, December 2011.
-Which of the following surprising states of affairs is described in the passage?

Question

Passage
First of all, the notion that more than one author was responsible for the composition of the Iliad and the Odyssey may fail to account adequately for the artistic unity and linguistic cohesion that mark these two works.  The idea of dual authorship instead privileges the inconsistencies between the texts stressed by late 19 th - and early 20 th -century scholars who suggested that the two epics are not, in fact, the work of a single poetic genius.  The promulgation of this theory served to undermine an earlier fundamentalist faith in a consensus from antiquity: one and only one poet called Homer authored both poems.Second of all, even if more than one author existed under the guise of Homer, there is no denying that these epics represent the culmination of a long tradition of oral poetry-specifically, oral verse concerning the Trojan War.  The existence of this oral tradition has sometimes been used to speculate that the texts we have of the Iliad and the Odyssey were merely strung together from shorter poems about warrior-heroes sung by itinerant bards to regale the aristocratic courts of ancient Greece.  In this context, the name "Homer" has been explained as a generic designation signifying either a group of ancient singer-poets or an imaginary author to whom a collective body of oral poetry was attributed.That epic poems of more than 12,000 lines could have been recited from memory has been well documented.  Research undertaken at the beginning of the 20 th century identified singers in the Balkans who could perform monumental epic poems from memory.  These performers seemed to have memorized discrete episodes or sections of poetry, arranging these as they recited.  Since then, it has been almost universally recognized that any theory about Homeric authorship must accommodate the oral tradition.Today many scholars find it unlikely that the same individual composed both Homeric epics.  Compellingly, even the ancient consensus that there was just one author cannot be traced further back than about 520 BCE when the two poems-which had been committed to writing in their recognizable form sometime after the introduction of the alphabet to Greece in the 8 th century BCE-were recited by bards at the festival of Athena.  Prior to this, there had already been some controversy regarding the authorship of the poems.  In particular, an alternative tradition claimed that the Odyssey had been written by the poet Melesigenes, who then appropriated the name Homer.Likewise, leading Homericists now conjecture more specifically that one poet wrote the Iliad and that the Odyssey was composed sometime later by a second.  This theory rests on two basic premises:  (1) Each poem has its own well-defined and unified design that discredits the possibility it is merely a pastiche of shorter poems passed down orally and finally stabilized in written form; and (2) differences between the poems seem to point to separate authors.  Scholars cite not only linguistic inconsistencies, including differences in vocabulary, but also discrepancies in background, underlying beliefs, ethics, and even geographical orientation.  Intriguingly, researchers have also found evidence in the Odyssey of imitation of passages from the Iliad.A few skeptics, however, continue to insist that the stylistic similarities between the two epics ascribed to Homer are too striking to support a theory of multiple authorship.  Far from clinging to idealistic notions of artistry or outdated modes of manuscript study, these single-author theorists have combined information technology and analysis of linguistic style to produce a legitimate body of evidence they can marshal against the prevailing trend.
West, Martin. "The Homeric Question Today," in Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, Vol 155. No. 4, December 2011.
-Which of the following surprising states of affairs is described in the passage?

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Paragraph 4 notes "Frege's failure" to establish logicism due to Russell's Paradox, but states that Russell successfully established a new version of logicism "that would avoid the fatal flaw in Frege's thesis." Paragraph 6 conveys that years later Russell "[a]musingly" called Frege the person "who first succeeded in 'logicising' mathematics" (ie, establishing logicism), even though Russell had already been widely recognized as "accomplishing what Frege could not." Russell's statement about Frege's success is surprising because it contradicts the known facts. By crediting Frege with being the first to successfully establish logicism, the statement ironically highlights the fact that Frege had actually failed and that Russell was the one who first logicized mathematics. By contrast, none of the following are surprising states of affairs described in the passage: Russell, although he advanced a naïve version of set theory, is considered to be a pioneer in logic (Choice A). The passage states that "the underlying problem with Frege's approach to logicism was his invocation of a naïve version of set theory" (Paragraph 5). However, Russell developed "a more sophisticated set-theoretic foundation for mathematics" (Paragraph 6). Therefore, although Russell is considered to be "a pioneer in mathematical logic" (Paragraph 3), the passage does not indicate that he advanced a naïve version of set theory. Frege's use of Euclidean methodology prevented him from establishing logicism (Choice B). The passage does not suggest that Frege's logicist project failed because he used "Euclid's axiomatic method of proof" (Paragraph 2), but rather that it failed because "one of [Frege's] basic logical axioms harbored a contradiction" (Paragraph 3). Frege and Russell, although they tried to establish logicism, ultimately proved it to be impossible (Choice D). The passage states that "Frege's failure spawned a great achievement for mathematics" (Paragraph 4) because it helped Russell to successfully establish logicism, "accomplishing what Frege could not" (Paragraph 6). Thus, Russell ultimately proved that logicism was possible, even though Frege failed to do so.

Passage First of All, the Notion That More Than One Author