Any young writer who may imagine that the power of clear and
concise literary expression comes by nature, cannot do better than
study in Goldsmith’s writings the continual and minute alternations
which the author considered necessary even after the first
edition—sometimes when the second and third editions had been
published. Many of these, especially in the poetical works, were
merely improvements in sound, as suggested by a singularly
sensitive ear. But the majority of the omissions and corrections were
prompted by a careful taste, which abhorred everything redundant or
slovenly. The English people are very fond of good English, and thus
it is that couplets from “The Traveler” and “The Deserted Village”
have come into the common stock of our language, and that
sometimes not so much on account of the ideas they convey as
through their singular precision of epithet and musical sound.
【題組】57. According to the passage, Goldsmith avoided _______ .
(A) criticism (B) omissions
(C) alternations (D) redundancy