Question

passage
at the onset of world war ii, when the company bausch & lomb came up with a sunglass design for us air force pilots that would reduce glare - the sunglasses “banned” distracting rays to improve visibility - it immediately put all of its manufacturing resources into these ray - ban aviators. following the war, americans sought the brand’s “heroic” sunglasses, wanting to adopt the look of soldiers and aviators pictured in news photographs.

1. why does the author place quotation marks around the word “heroic” (sentence 2)?

a to suggest that ray - ban aviators, though part of a heroic cause, are not literally heroic
b to underscore how ray - ban aviators aided us pilots
c to indicate that the us pilots used the word “heroic” to describe ray - ban aviators
d to point out that the ray - ban company changed the sunglasses’ name to include the word “heroic”

Explanation:

Quotation marks often signal non - literal usage. Here, the sunglasses are part of a context related to heroic soldiers and aviators, but they themselves are not actually heroic in a literal sense.

Answer:

A. To suggest that Ray - Ban Aviators, though part of a heroic cause, are not literally heroic