Question

read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

small gentleman of thirty or forty. it cannot be relationship for such conduct does not obtain among adults, be they never so closely allied. it has no basis except that the victim is a child, and the child has no personal rights which we feel bound to respect.

a baby, when \good,\ is considered as a first - rate plaything,—a toy to play with or to play on or to set - going like a machine - top, that we may laugh at it. there is a legitimate frolicking with small children, as the cat plays with her kittens; but that is not in the least inconsistent with respect. grown people can play together and laugh together without jeering at each other. so we might laugh with our children, even more than we do, and yet never laugh at them. the pathetic side of it is that children are even more sensitive to ridicule than grown people. they have no philosophy to fall back upon, and,—here is the hideously unjust side,—if they lose their tempers, being yet unlearned in self - restraint,—if they try to turn the tables on their tormentors, then the wise \grown - up\ promptly punishes them for \disrespect.\ they must respect their elders even in this pitiful attitude, but who is to demand the respect due to youth?

the quotation marks around the word \disrespect\ in paragraph 7 highlight the irony of the word because the behavior it describes represents

a supposed adults deferential treatment of children

b parents lighthearted attempts to play with their offspring

c childrens eager mockery of adults behavior

d childrens inevitable reaction to being treated rudely by adults

Explanation:

The passage notes that adults laugh at, play with, and ridicule children like playthings, yet punish children for so-called "disrespect" when children lack self-restraint. The quotation marks around "disrespect" highlight the irony that the behavior adults label as disrespect is actually a natural reaction to their own rude treatment of children, while adults demand respect despite not extending the same consideration. This matches the idea that the term refers to a supposed deferential standard that adults enforce unevenly.

Answer:

A. supposed adults' deferential treatment of children