Due to their often strange images, highly experimental syntax, and opaque subject matter, many of John Ashbery’s poems
can be quite diﬃcult to ______ and thus are the object of heated debate among scholars.
delegate
compose
interpret
renounce
Choice C is the best answer because it most logically completes the text’s discussion of John Ashbery’s poems. As used in
this context, “interpret” would mean decipher the meaning of. The text indicates that Ashbery’s poems have many unusual
features, that it’s diﬃcult to tell what exactly the poems’ subject matter is, and that scholars strongly disagree about the
poems. This context conveys the idea that it’s diﬃcult to interpret Ashbery’s poems. 
Choice A is incorrect because “delegate” means to assign someone as a representative of another person or to entrust
something to someone else, neither of which would make sense in context. The text is focused only on the diﬃculty that
readers have interpreting Ashbery’s poems due to their many unusual features; it doesn’t suggest anything about the poems
being diﬃcult to delegate. Choice B is incorrect because describing Ashbery’s poems as diﬃcult to “compose,” or put
together or produce, would make sense only if the text were about Ashbery’s experience of writing the poems. It could be
true that it was diﬃcult for Ashbery to compose his poems, but the text doesn’t address this; it instead discusses how
readers interpret and engage with the poems. Choice D is incorrect because describing Ashbery’s poems as being diﬃcult to
“renounce,” or give up or refuse, wouldn’t make sense in context. The text focuses on the idea that features of Ashbery’s
poems are odd or unclear and have caused heated scholarly debate. This context suggests that the poems are diﬃcult to
interpret, not that the poems are diﬃcult to renounce.