In the early twentieth century, many authors felt that traditional literature could not capture the rapidly changing modern world and argued that new, experimental forms of writing were necessary. (2) Their movement, which came to be known as modernism, was influenced by many historical factors, including changing social norms and advances in science and technology. (3) But perhaps the most important factor in convincing authors that they needed new ways of writing was the First World War. (4) Some writers, such as the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, had firsthand experiences as soldiers that led them to depart from shopworn stuff that made warfare seem all right and depict the ugly realities of war. (5) When Owen described the “shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells” in the poem “Anthem for Doomed Youth,” for example, both the subject matter and its frank presentation signaled a departure from earlier representations of war.

(6) Even writers who did not experience combat were deeply affected by the First World War, because the unexpectedly long-lasting and destructive conflict undermined faith in traditional ways of storytelling. (7) Some writers, such as Virginia Woolf and James Joyce, turned away from straightforward narration and toward a stream-of-consciousness style that recorded characters’ confused rush of thoughts and impressions. (8) Explaining this style, Woolf noted that “the mind, exposed to the ordinary course of life, receives upon its surface a myriad impressions . . . From all sides they come, an incessant shower of innumerable atoms, composing in their sum what we might venture to call life itself.” (9) Portraying life as a bombardment of impressions on the mind, Woolf was one of the most important modernist novelists.

(10) The disruption of war was not the only stimulus for modernism in the early twentieth century. (11) As literature professor Laura Frost points out, modernist literary works are “conspicuously labor intensive.” (12) But the First World War changed people’s lives and perceptions like no other factor at the time did, and for this reason the war should be seen as the primary impetus for modernism.

In sentence 4 (reproduced below), which of the following versions of the underlined text is most consistent with the overall tone and style of the passage?

Some writers, such as the poets Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen, had firsthand experiences as soldiers that led them to depart from shopworn stuff that made warfare seem all right and depict the ugly realities of war.

(as it is now)
A

the hyped-up descriptions of war that used to be written
B

the exalted likenesses that typified portrayals of war in bygone days
C

the glorified images of combat seen in older literary works
D

literary depictions from times of yore aggrandizing the fray
E