Which activity occupied a large part of monks’ daily work?

Concept: A detail question in reading comprehension asks for information the passage states outright. The method is to go back to the text, locate the sentence that describes the activity the question names, and match that sentence’s wording against the option values. Background knowledge about the topic is never the basis of the choice — the passage is.

Application: The question asks which activity took up a large part of the monks’ daily work. The passage states: “Monks devoted long hours to copying manuscripts by hand, ensuring the survival of classical texts in philosophy, medicine, history and theology.” The phrase “devoted long hours” is the passage’s way of saying “a large part of ... daily work”, and the activity attached to it is copying manuscripts by hand.

Cross-check — what the passage actually says about the other activities named:

• Creating fictional literature: the writing the passage credits to monks is commentaries, chronicles and scientific observations — expository work, not invented narrative.

• Translating foreign languages: the passage describes classical texts being copied and safeguarded across generations; it never describes them being rendered into another language.

• Conducting public debates: the passage mentions monastic schools training clerics and administrators, but describes no public debating as part of monastic work.

Only one activity in the passage is given a share of the monks’ daily hours, and that is copying manuscripts by hand.