While French formal gardens of the seventeenth century sought to demonstrate human mastery over nature through strict symmetry, straight paths, and manicured hedges, English landscape gardens of the eighteenth century took the opposite approach. English designers swept away geometric constraints in favor of rolling hills, winding lakes, and strategically placed clusters of trees that mimicked the natural, untamed countryside. The French style forced nature into artificial order, whereas the English style aimed to create a perfected, idealized version of nature's own organic forms.
According to the passage, seventeenth-century French formal gardens and eighteenth-century English landscape gardens differ primarily in which of the following ways?
- AFrench gardens prioritized rolling hills and winding lakes, whereas English gardens focused on strict geometric patterns.
- BFrench gardens were first developed in the eighteenth century, whereas English gardens dominated the seventeenth century.
- French gardens imposed geometric order on the environment, whereas English gardens imitated organic, natural shapes.Answer
- DFrench gardens avoided manicured hedges and straight paths, whereas English gardens embraced strict symmetry.