Extended debate concerning the exact point of origin of individual folktales told by Afro-American slaves has unfortunately taken precedence over analysis of the tales' meaning and function. Cultural continuities with Africa were not dependent on importation and perpetuation of specific folktales in their pristine form. It is the place that tales occupied in the lives of the slaves and in the meaning slaves derived from them that the clearest resemblances to African tradition can be found. Afro-American slaves did not borrow tales indiscriminately from the Whites among whom they lived. Black people were most infuenced by those Euro-American tales whose functional meaning and aesthetic appeal had the greatest similarity to the tales with deep roots in their ancetral homeland. Regardless of where slave tales came from, the essential point is that, with respect to language, delivery, details of characterization, and plot, slaves quickly made them their own.
1. The author claims that most studies of folktales told by Afro-American slaves are inadequate because the studies
A. fail to recognize any possible Euro-American influence on the folktales
B. do not pay enough attention to the features of a folktale that best reveal an African influence
C. overestimate the number of folktales brought from Africa by the slaves
D. do not consider the fact that a folktales can be changed as it is retold many times
E. oversimplify the diverse and complex traditions of the slaves' ancestral homeland
原文主题句直接点出作者批判的是只关注exact point of origin而忽视analysis of the tales' meaning and function的现象。所以要选出答案,就要找到这里的meaning and function到底是在指什么。
而后文进一步说明cultural continuity体现在the meaning slaves derived from them that the clearest resemblances to African tradition can be found.
而黑奴即使在借用Euro-American tales时,也不是照单全收,而是most infuenced by those Euro-American tales whose functional meaning and aesthetic appeal had the greatest similarity to the tales with deep roots in their ancetral homeland.
可见主旨句所说的meaning and function就是African influence,因此选B。