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Verbal·Information and Ideas·Command of Evidence
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The Clouds is a 423 BCE play by Aristophanes, originally written in ancient Greek. At the time, professional intellectuals called sophists taught paying customers a variety of subjects and sometimes engaged in what would now be described as research. Aristophanes satirizes sophists’ practices and views as foolish, as seen when the character __________
Which choice most effectively uses a quotation from a translation of The Clouds to illustrate the claim?
A
Strepsiades, after taking lessons from a sophist, says to his son, “Approach, that you may know more; and I will tell you a thing, by learning which you will be a man. But see that you do not teach this to any one.”
B
Socrates, a sophist, explains why he studies astronomy while sitting in a basket hanging a few feet off the ground, saying, “I should not have rightly discovered things celestial if I had not suspended the intellect, and mixed the thought in a subtle form with its kindred air.”
C
Socrates, a sophist, says to a potential customer, “Is the power of speaking, pray, implanted in your nature?”
D
Strepsiades encourages his son to learn to be a sophist, saying, “Reform your habits as quickly as possible, and go and learn what I advise.”