In the context of the passage, close reading implies:
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Correct answer: D. reading a text by focusing on its words and technical aspects
Explanation
Close reading attends to 'the words on the page' and the technique of the verse.
Note: Passage II, a modern prose passage on practical criticism, is copyrighted and not reproduced. It explains that close reading, still common in schools, comes from I. A. Richards's 1920s experiments. His method judged a poem by its words and technique, apart from author and context, and looked for coherence of image, theme and language, aiming to be objective and 'scientific'. It shaped the American New Critics (Ransom, Brooks) and implied a hierarchy of texts of 'universal' value, the canon.
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