[单项选择]Nothing more unlucky, I sometimes think,
could have befallen Chaucer than that he should
have been christened "the father of English
Line poetry." For "father" in such a context conveys to
(5) most of us, I fear, a faint suggestion of vicarious
glory—the derivative celebrity of parents, other-
wise obscure, who shine, moon-like, in the
reflected luster of their sons. What else than
progenitors were the fathers of Plato, or Caesar,
(10) or Shakespeare, or Napoleon And so to call
Chaucer the father of English poetry is often tan-
tamount to dismissing him, not unkindly, as the
estimable but archaic ancestor of a brilliant line.
But Chaucer—if I may risk the paradox—is him-
(15) self the very thing he begat. He is English poetry
incarnate, and only two, perhaps, of all his sons
outshine his fame. It is with Chaucer himself,

A. skeptical but resigned
B. admiring and intrigued
C. dismissive
D. incredulous
E. (E) completely detached