Question

Writing about nineteenth-century women’s travel writing, Lila Harper notes that the four women she discussed used their own names, in contrast with the nineteenth-century female novelists who either published anonymously or used male pseudonyms. The novelists doubtless realized that they were breaking boundaries, whereas three of the four daring, solitary travelers espoused traditional values, eschewing radicalism and women’s movements. Whereas the female novelists criticized their society, the female travelers seemed content to leave society as it was while accomplishing their own liberation. In other words, they lived a contradiction. For the subjects of Harper’s study, solitude in both the private and public spheres prevailed—a solitude that conferred authority, hitherto a male prerogative, but that also precluded any collective action or female solidarity.
　　1. Which of the following best characterizes the "contradiction" that the author refers to?

　　A. The subjects of Harper’s study enjoyed solitude, and yet as travelers they were often among people.

　　B. Nineteenth-century travel writers used their own names, but nineteenth-century novelists used pseudonyms.

　　C. Women’s movements in the nineteenth-century were not very radical in comparison with those of the twentieth-century.

　　D. Nineteenth-century female novelists thought they were breaking boundaries, but it was the nineteenth-century women who traveled alone who were really doing so.

　　E. While traveling alone in the nineteenth-century was considered a radical act for a woman, the nineteenth-century solitary female travelers generally held conventional views.

Answer 1

Answer:

The option that best characterizes the contradiction that the author refers to is:

E. While traveling alone in the nineteenth-century was considered a radical act for a woman, the nineteenth-century solitary female travelers generally held conventional views.

Explanation:

[...] solitary travelers espoused traditional values, eschewing radicalism and women’s movements. [...]  the female travelers seemed content to leave society as it was while accomplishing their own liberation. In other words, they lived a contradiction.

The lines above have what we need to answer this question. The contradiction referred to in the passage concerns the female travelers of the 19th century. Even though those women were doing something considered astonishing back then - women were not supposed to travel on their own -, they were not breaking boundaries and taboos as they could have been. They were conventional in their general views, not worrying about society remaining the way it was. As long as they were free to do what they wanted, they did not feel the need to fight so that other women could do what they wanted as well. Thus, being revolutionary and, at the same time, conventional was their contradiction.