The following is a paragraph from an essay about the origin of the word "silhouette":
In mid-eighteenth-century France, traditional painted portraits were a luxury reserved solely for the wealthy aristocracy. For the emerging middle class, a much cheaper alternative arose: the profile portrait, created by tracing the shadow of a subject’s face onto black paper and cutting it out. These inexpensive cutouts were named "silhouettes" after Étienne de Silhouette, a French finance minister whose brief tenure in 1759 was marked by severe economic austerity measures. Because Silhouette advocated for extreme penny-pinching and cut his own pension to save state funds, his name became synonymous with anything cheap, minimal, or cut short. Consequently, the term "silhouette" was applied derisively to these simple paper cutouts to suggest they were the portraits of a cheapskate, though the art form eventually outlived its negative connotations.
The writer is considering adding the following sentence to the end of the paragraph:
"Silhouette later retired to his estate in Bry-sur-Marne, where he lived quietly until his death in 1767."
Should the writer make this addition?
- AYes, because it provides a logical transition to the next paragraph by introducing Silhouette's life after his term as finance minister.
- BYes, because it clarifies how Silhouette's retirement allowed him to focus on inventing new portrait techniques.
- No, because it shifts the focus of the paragraph from the origins of the word "silhouette" to unrelated biographical details about the man himself.Cevap
- DNo, because it contradicts the earlier statement that Silhouette's name became synonymous with austerity.