BRUTUS. Remember March, the ides of March, remember. Did not great Julius bleed for justice’ sake?

What villain touched his body, that did stab,

And not for justice? What, shall one of us,

That struck the foremost man of all this world

But for supporting robbers, shall we now

Contaminate our fingers with base bribes,

And sell the mighty space of our large honours

For so much trash as may be graspèd thus?

I had rather be a dog and bay the moon

Than such a Roman.

–The Tragedy of Julius Caesar,
William Shakespeare

In the passage, Brutus makes a historical allusion to the ides of March. Which central idea does this allusion support?

the devastation of loss
the importance of justice
the importance of friendship
the corrupting power of greed

Select the correct answer. in this excerpt from "a modest proposal" by johnathan swift, what does the author list? i can think of no one objection, that will possibly be raised against this proposal, unless it should be urged, that the number of people will be thereby much lessened in the kingdom. this i freely own, and 'twas indeed one principal design in offering it to the world. i desire the reader will observe, that i calculate my remedy for this one individual kingdom of ireland, and for no other that ever was, is, or, i think, ever can be upon earth. therefore let no man talk to me of other expedients: of taxing our absentees at five shillings a pound: of using neither cloaths, nor houshold furniture, except what is of our own growth and manufacture: of utterly rejecting the materials and instruments that promote foreign luxury: of curing the expensiveness of pride, vanity, idleness, and gaming in our women: of introducing a vein of parsimony, prudence and temperance: of learning to love our country, wherein we differ even from laplanders, and the inhabitants of topinamboo: of quitting our animosities and factions, nor acting any longer like the jews, who were murdering one another at the very moment their city was taken: of being a little cautious not to sell our country and consciences for nothing: of teaching landlords to have at least one degree of mercy towards their tenants. lastly, of putting a spirit of honesty, industry, and skill into our shop-keepers, who, if a resolution could now be taken to buy only our native goods, would immediately unite to cheat and exact upon us in the price, the measure, and the goodness, nor could ever yet be brought to make one fair proposal of just dealing, though often and earnestly invited to it.a. reforms that had failed to improve ireland's situation b. the unrealistic measures discussed by irish government officials c. viable measures that could improve ireland's situation d. measures that would unify the populace of ireland

Which statement best paraphrases these sentences from the text

[1] nothing that comes from the desert expresses its extremes better than the unhappy growth of the tree yuccas. tormented, thin forests of it stalk drearily in the high mesas, particularly in that triangular slip that fans out eastward from the meeting of the sierras and coastwise hills. the yucca bristles with bayonet-pointed leaves, dull green, growing shaggy with age like an old [5] man's tangled gray beard, tipped with panicles of foul, greenish blooms. after its death, which is slow, the ghostly hollow network of its woody skeleton, with hardly power to rot, makes even the moonlight fearful. but it isn't always this way. before the yucca has come to flower, while yet its bloom is a luxurious, creamy, cone-shaped bud of the size of a small cabbage, full of sugary sap. the indians twist it deftly out of its fence of daggers and roast the prize for their [10] own delectation why does the author use the words "bayonet-pointed" (line 4) and "fence of daggers" (line 9) to describe the leaves of the yucca tree? . to create an image of the sharp edges of the plant to emphasize how beautiful the plant's leaves are to explain when and where the plant grows to show how afraid the author is of the plant