9
QuizMultiple Choice

Classical Speeches and Literature of the Middle Ages — Test

Question 9 • English 3

Read the excerpt from Pericles’s funeral oration by Thucydides. Again, in questions of general good feeling there is a great contrast between us and most other people. We make friends by doing good to others, not by receiving good from them. This makes our friendship all the more reliable, since we want to keep alive the gratitude of those who are in our debt by showing continued good-will to them. . . . We are unique in this. When we do kindnesses to others, we do not do them out of any calculations of profit or loss: we do them without afterthought, relying on our free liberality. Taking everything together then, I declare that our city is an education to Greece, and I declare that in my opinion each single one of our citizens, in all the manifold aspects of life, is able to show himself the rightful lord and owner of his own person, and do this, moreover, with exceptional grace and exceptional versatility. Which detail best supports the purpose of persuading the audience that their freedom is connected to their generosity?

Answer
A
“Again, in questions of general good feeling there is a great contrast between us and most other people.”
B
“This makes our friendship all the more reliable, since we want to keep alive the gratitude of those who are in our debt by showing continued good-will to them.”
C
“We make friends by doing good to others, not by receiving good from them.”
D
“When we do kindnesses to others, we do not do them out of any calculations of profit or loss: we do them without afterthought, relying on our free liberality.”
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Read the excerpt from Pericles’s funeral oration…