Read this passage from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden:

I see young men, my townsmen, whose misfortune it is to have inherited farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools; for these are more easily acquired than got rid of. Better if they had been born in the open pasture and suckled by a wolf, that they might have seen with clearer eyes what field they were called to labor in. Who made them serfs of the soil? Why should they eat their sixty acres, when man is condemned to eat only his peck of dirt? Why should they begin digging their graves as soon as they are born? They have got to live a man’s life, pushing all these things before them, and get on well as they can. How many a poor immortal soul have I met well-nigh crushed and mothered under its load.

Which statement best summarizes the passage?

A. farmers are often held prisoner by their own lands.
B. a sufficient farm must be 60 acres or more.
C. farmers make up a majority of his neighbors.
D. farms are often passed from generation to generation.

Respuesta :

The correct answer is A. farmers are often held prisoner by their own lands.
In Walden, Thoreau proposes the idea that every man should go to nature and live there because it is perfect and peaceful. However, he condemns farmers for not being able to ever be free because of their hard work on their farms and lands that they will never be rid of until they die.

Farmers are often held prisoner by their own lands. (APEX)