Question

read the following passage carefully before you choose your answers.

(in the early twentieth century)

every child has to learn the language he is born to. it is certain that he will make mistakes in the process, especially as he is not taught it by any wise system, but blunders into what usage he can grasp from day to day.

now, if an adult foreigner were learning our language, and we greeted his efforts with yells of laughter, we should think ourselves grossly rude. and what should we think of ourselves if we further misled him by setting absurd words and phrases before him, encouraging him to further blunders, that we might laugh the more; and then, if we had visitors, inciting him to make these blunders over again to entertain the company? yet this is common household sport, so long as there is a little child to act as zany* for the amusement of his elders. the errors of a child are not legitimate grounds of humour, even to those coarse enough to laugh at them, any more than a toddling baby’s falls have the same elements of the incongruous as the overthrow of a stout old gentleman who sits down astonished in the snow.

a baby has to fall. it is natural, and not funny. so does the young child have to make mistakes as he learns any

*zany: a person who acts the fool for the amusement of others

the author’s word choice in paragraph 2 (\yet this... elders\) serves which of the following functions?

a) it helps establish a characterization of children as playthings

b) it emphasizes the pleasures of the domestic family unit

c) it reveals the author’s bias towards older generations in families

d) it questions the authority of parents and other relatives

Explanation:

The word "blunders" in the second paragraph refers to children's language mistakes that adults encourage for amusement, framing children as sources of entertainment. Option A matches this, as the author notes adults incite children to make these errors for company entertainment, establishing children as playthings. Other options are incorrect: the text does not focus on domestic pleasure (B), show bias toward elders (C), or question parental authority (D).

Answer:

A. It helps establish a characterization of children as playthings