Passage (Henry David Thoreau, *Walden*, 1854, Ch. II "Where I Lived, and What I Lived For"): "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion." What does the clause "nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary" most strongly imply about Thoreau's view of how most people live?
AMost people live in a state of submission to circumstances they could otherwise resist or change.
BMost people lead lives indistinguishable from Thoreau's at Walden.
CMost people willingly choose hardship in order to test their character.
DMost people refuse to accept any constraints whatsoever on their lives.
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: A. Most people live in a state of submission to circumstances they could otherwise resist or change.
Thoreau is **distinguishing himself** from a default condition he sees around him. To *practise resignation* — to consent to circumstances passively, without protest — is what he refuses to do. The clause makes sense only if *resignation* is a recognisable default for most people: otherwise Thoreau would have no reason to disclaim it.
The "unless it was quite necessary" caveat sharpens the implication — Thoreau does not deny that *some* circumstances genuinely warrant resignation, only that resignation should not be the default stance.
- **B** would make Thoreau's project unnecessary and contradicts the entire essay.
- **C** describes asceticism, which Thoreau elsewhere endorses, but the *resignation* clause is about the opposite: passive acceptance.
- **D** is the opposite of Thoreau's claim about most people.
The key inference: refusing to *practise* a state implies the speaker thinks **others do practise it**.
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