According to Baddeley, the is specialized to briefly store speech-based information about the sounds of language.

a,b,d are the three sentences that use a reflexive pronoun

using your imagination❤

the answer is:

to persuade readers that a conquering prince must destroy a former republic if he hopes to hold it.

in the excerpt from "the prince," the author niccolò machiavelli suggests that to take possession of a city and endure the control over it, it is necessary to destroy it first. otherwise, people who have known freedom will eventually turn against the new rulers and fight back to recover their power.