Passage
Though history often remembers the nineteenth-century botanist Eleanor Vance for her pioneering work on alpine flora, her contemporaries were more frequently struck by her idiosyncratic demeanor during field expeditions. To the casual observer, Vance’s meticulous cataloging of specimens appeared to stem from an innate patience; however, her journals suggest this rigor was actually a frantic defense against a persistent, underlying dread of cognitive decline. More tellingly, her colleague Dr. Charles Aris noted in his diary that Vance possessed a 'singularly fierce aversion to any form of intellectual compromise,' a trait that manifested in her absolute refusal to publish preliminary findings even when university funding depended on it. While Aris himself was prone to accommodating the demands of their sponsors, Vance remained unyielding, showing a stubborn disregard for academic politics. This rigid stance was often misconstrued by the university board as mere arrogance, yet those who traveled with her understood that her stubbornness was not born of self-conceit, but rather of a profound, literal devotion to empirical precision.
Based on the passage, Eleanor Vance’s colleague Dr. Charles Aris explicitly identified which of the following traits as characteristic of Vance?
- AAn inherent patience that allowed her to systematically organize botanical specimens.
- BA pragmatism that led her to accommodate institutional sponsors to safeguard research funding.
- CA disposition of self-conceit and arrogance in her dealings with the university board.
- An intense and unyielding reluctance to make concessions regarding her scientific standards.Answer