Read the following passage carefully:
Harriet adjusted the magnifying visor, her fingers steady as she applied the diluted alcohol solution to the corner of the sixteenth-century portolan chart. To her, each brown spot of mold was an invasive threat, a decay that must be arrested to preserve the cartographer's original mathematical intent. She worked in silence, her workspace illuminated by a single, focused halogen lamp that left the rest of the archive in shadow.
Across the wide oak table sat Gideon, his spectacles perched precariously on his nose as he turned the pages of a weathered logbook. He did not use gloves; he insisted that the oil from his fingertips was part of the book’s ongoing history, a continuation of the touch of the sailors who had kept it. When Harriet sighed at his handling of the paper, Gideon merely smiled. 'A map that has never been stained is a map that has never been feared,' he murmured, tracing a dark water ring that blotted out a small island chain. 'You want to rescue the geometry, Harriet, but the geometry is only the dream. The stain is the reality of the voyage.' Harriet did not look up. To her, Gideon's romanticism was merely a cover for carelessness, a refusal to do the hard work of stabilization.
Which of the following best describes the analytical function of the contrast between Harriet’s and Gideon’s attitudes toward the preservation of old documents?
- AIt outlines the physical steps Harriet takes to clean the portolan chart while contrasting them with Gideon’s passive reading of the weathered logbook.
- It highlights a thematic conflict between the desire to preserve an idealized, static order and the acceptance of historical reality and transient human experience.Answer
- CIt establishes a moral dichotomy between Harriet’s responsible preservation techniques and Gideon’s destructive carelessness with historical artifacts.
- DIt reveals the author's rejection of scientific methodology in favor of an emotional, romanticized engagement with historical texts.
- EIt demonstrates that Harriet and Gideon are unable to collaborate effectively due to the difference in their academic training and professional duties.