Read the following passage:
Throughout the nineteenth century, cartography transitioned from an art form dominated by decorative flourishes to an empirical science governed by standardization. Early mapmakers frequently embellished uncharted territories with illustrations of mythical sea creatures or elaborate family crests of their patrons, signifying not just geographic space but the political and cultural alliances of the era. However, with the rise of national surveying bodies, such as Great Britain’s Ordnance Survey, maps were stripped of these subjective ornamentations. The objective shifted toward absolute precision, mathematical scaling, and uniform symbology. While contemporary critics lamented this shift as the death of artistic expression in mapmaking, proponents argued that the new style democratized geographic knowledge. By prioritizing functional clarity over aesthetic distinction, standardized maps allowed merchants, military planners, and average citizens alike to navigate landscapes with identical, predictable accuracy. Thus, the plain, monochrome lines of the modern topographic map did not represent a failure of imagination, but a deliberate rhetorical choice to establish authority through a visual language of transparency and objectivity.
Which of the following statements best describes the author's rhetorical perspective on the transition in nineteenth-century cartography?
- AThe author nostalgically laments the transition, viewing the loss of artistic ornamentations as a decline in the cultural significance of maps.
- BThe author takes a neutral stance, cataloging the history of Great Britain's Ordnance Survey without evaluating the social impact of the change.
- The author analyzes the transition as a deliberate shift toward functional clarity and objective authority, highlighting its role in democratizing geographic knowledge.Cevap
- DThe author dismisses the decorative elements of early maps as errors resulting from cartographers' lack of scientific instruments and mathematical training.