WorksheetsA Modest Proposal
Total questions: 10
Worksheet time: 5mins
Why did Jonathan Swift write "A Modest Proposal"?
He was writing a comedy to be performed as a play
He was writing a travel tale that would be believable to those who never traveled
Ireland's poor were leading wretched lives
There was a serious problem with cannibalism in England at the time
What was Swift's modest proposal?
To curb begging by having everyone eat potatoes
To breed a certain portion of Irish children to be eaten
To stop widespread thievery by providing food people were used to eating
To decrease England's population by deporting people
What was ironic about what Swift said his critics would say about eating pre-teen girls in "A Modest Proposal"?
The whole proposition was deeply offensive, including eating babies and boys
The girls would better be used to make more babies to eat
The parents of the girls would have already eaten them -- none would be left to eat
Society would only permit boys to be killed for food
In "A Modest Proposal", what social problem does Swift blame for widespread thievery in Ireland?
Lack of jobs and the people therefore having to steal to survive
Heavy pollution caused by decaying bodies
The black plague was destroying people's minds
A wickedness caused by reading stories about Satan
What is the ironic device called that conveys an outrageous idea with very rational language?
Political thought
Self-determination
Stage irony
Overstatement
Why does Swift use mathematics in "A Modest Proposal" when casually detailing the number of children available to be eaten?
It was the only way to adequately estimate the good that would come of his proposal
It reduces children to just numbers, rather than people; almost like you are discussing animals or objects
It helped the people to realize how overpopulated the kingdom was
It allowed him to forecast how well his proposal would perform
How else does irony show up as overstatement in "A Modest Proposal" besides Swift suggesting eating children?
His description of how many people one child would feed
His process of getting the proposal implemented into law
His description of how other countries also had implemented the proposal
His description of a child's acceptance of their fate
"A Modest Proposal" is actually a sharp critique of what?
The Irish potato famine
The lack of fertilizing practices in Irish farming
The poor state of England's fishing fleet
England's treatment of the Irish
Another example of overstatement in A Modest Proposal is
The suggestion of using children for pet food as well
The suggestion of teenage boys being the most-coveted type of child-food
The suggestion to wear children's skin for fashion, as we do leather or fur
The description of what happens to children who grow up to be adults
The mathematics describing the available children in "A Modest Proposal" also serves to
Distance the reader from the Irish people as they consider the proposal
Let England know how much poverty existed in Ireland
Describe to Englishmen how much more advanced the Irish were socially
Let parents know how little they would make from the proposal, if implemented
