Question

read this passage from dover beach by matthew arnold:
ah, love, let us be true
to one another! for the world, which seems
to lie before us like a land of dreams,
so various, so beautiful, so new,
hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
and we are here as on a darkling plain
swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
where ignorant armies clash by night.
which word from the passage has the strongest connotation of desperation?
a. struggle
b. certitude
c. seems
d. night

Explanation:

• "Struggle" directly conveys a sense of desperate, difficult effort against hardship, aligning with the passage's tone of hopelessness.
• "Certitude" means certainty (opposite of desperation), "seems" refers to appearance vs. reality, and "night" is a setting for chaos but does not carry the direct connotation of desperate effort that "struggle" does.

Answer:

A. Struggle