I need help with a TOEFL reading summary question. It is from the Official Tests Vol. 2, Test 1. The passage goes like this:
China has one of the world’s oldest continuous civilizations—despite Invasions
and occasional foreign rule. A country as vast as China with so long-lasting a civiliza-
tion has a complex social and visual history, within which pottery and porcelain play a
major role.
The function and status of ceramics In China varied from dynasty to dynasty, so
they may be utilitarian, burial, trade, collectors’, or even ritual objects, according to their
quality and the era In which they were made. The ceramics fall into three broad types—
earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain—for vessels, architectural items such as roof tiles,
and modeled objects and figures. In addition, there was an important group of sculptures
made for religious use, the majority of which were produced in earthenware.
The earliest ceramics were fired to earthenware temperatures, but as early as the
fifteenth century B.C., high-temperature stonewares were being made with glazed
surfaces. During the Six Dynasties period (A.D. 265-589), kilns’ In north China were pro-
ducing high-fired ceramics of good quality. Whitewares produced in Hebei and Henan
provinces from the seventh to the tenth centuries evolved into the highly prized porce-
lains of the Song dynasty (A.D. 960-1279), long regarded as one of the high points in the
history of China’s ceramic industry. The tradition of religious sculpture extends over most
historical periods but is less clearly delineated than that of stonewares or porcelains, for
it embraces the old custom of earthenware burial ceramics with later religious images
and architectural ornament Ceramic products also include lead-glazed tomb models of
the Han dynasty, three-color lead-glazed vessels and figures of the Tang dynasty, and
Ming three-color temple ornaments, in which the motifs were outlined in a raised trail of
slip’, as well as the many burial ceramics produced in imitation of vessels made in materi-
als of higher intrinsic value.
Trade between the West and the settled and prosperous Chinese dynasties intro-
duced new forms and different technologies. One of the most far-reaching examples is
the impact of the fine ninth-century A.D. Chinese porcelain wares imported into the Arab
world. So admired were these pieces that they encouraged the development of earth-
enware made in imitation of porcelain and instigated research into the method of their
manufacture. From the Middle East the Chinese acquired a blue pigment—a purified form
of cobalt oxide unobtainable at that time in China—that contained only a low level of man-
ganese. Cobalt ores found in China have a high manganese content, which produces a
more muted blue-gray color. In the seventeenth century, the trading activities of the Dutch
East India Company resulted in vast quantities of decorated Chinese porcelain being
brought to Europe, which stimulated and influenced the work of a wide variety of wares,
notably Delft. The Chinese themselves adapted many specific vessel forms from the West,
such as bottles with long spouts, and designed a range of decorative patterns especially
for the European market.
Just as painted designs on Greek pots may seem today to be purely decorative,
whereas in fact they were carefully and precisely worked out so that at the time, their
meaning was clear, so it is with Chinese pots. To twentieth-century eyes, Chinese pot-
tery may appear merely decorative, yet to the Chinese the form of each object and its
adornment had meaning and significance. The dragon represented the emperor, and the
phoenix, the empress; the pomegranate indicated fertility, and a pair of fish, happiness;
mandarin ducks stood for wedded bliss; the pine tree, peach, and crane are emblems of
long life; and fish leaping from waves indicated success in the civil service examinations.
Only when European decorative themes were introduced did these meanings become
obscured or even lost.
From early times pots were used in both religious and secular contexts. The imperial
court commissioned work and in the Yuan dynasty (A.D. 1279-1368) an imperial ceramic
factory was established at Jingdezhen. Pots played an important part in some religious
ceremonies. Long and often lyrical descriptions of the different types of ware exist that
assist in classifying pots, although these sometimes confuse an already large and com-
plicated picture.
The answer choices are:
A. The Chinese produced earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain pottery, and
they used their ceramics for a variety of utilitarian, architectural, and ceremonial
purposes.
B. The shape and decoration of ceramics produced for religious use in China were
influenced by Chinese ceramics produced for export.
C. As a result of trade relations, Chinese ceramic production changed, and
Chinese ceramics influenced the ceramic production of other countries.
D. Chinese burial ceramics have the longest and most varied history of production
and were frequently decorated with written texts that help scholars date them.
E. Before China had contact with the West, the meaning of various designs used
to decorate Chinese ceramics was well understood.
F. Ceramics made in imperial factories were used in both religious and
non-religious contexts.
I marked the answer ACF, but the correct answer is ACE.
I believe E should be incorrect, because it is just a minor detail from the second last paragraph at the end. Summary of 2nd last paragraph should be, “Different designs on chinese pottery convey different meanings” or something like that. Whereas, F is the summary of the last paragraph. I’m just confused. How can E be correct?