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Read these lines: "From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children; wretched, abject, frightful, hideous, miserable. They were a boy and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged, scowling, wolfish. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree." What are the two children?
ATwo orphans the Spirit had lately taken in
BTwo children the man had known long ago
CTwo evils given the shape of ragged children
DTwo ghosts sent to carry one final warning
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. Two evils given the shape of ragged children
1. The Spirit names them outright, and the names are not names at all but Ignorance and Want.
2. Naming a child after a condition turns the child into a picture of that condition.
3. The warning that follows is to beware them and all of their degree, which is a warning about a whole class of harm.
4. So the children stand for two evils dressed in human shape, option C.
5. Real orphans would be pitied and helped rather than feared and warned against.
6. Nothing marks them as ghosts or as anyone the man once knew.
7. The words wretched, ragged and wolfish describe the shape the evils take, not who they were before.
_Source: Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843), Stave III The Second of the Three Spirits_
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