Question

read the excerpt from part 4 of the odyssey. as long as bread and good red wine remained to keep the men up, and appease their craving, they would not touch the cattle. but in the end, when all the barley in the ship was gone, so hunger drove them to scour the wild shore with angling hooks, for fishes and seafowl, whatever fell into their hands; and lean days wore their bellies thin. what theme is best revealed by this conflict? it is easy to uphold morals when one is not suffering. resourcefulness is all one needs to survive. people can endure any suffering with teamwork. rules are challenging to follow without a strong leader.

Explanation:

The excerpt shows that when there were resources (bread, wine), the men followed the rule of not touching the cattle. But when resources ran out (barley gone, hunger), their situation changed. Let's analyze each option:

• Option 1: The men upheld the moral (not touching cattle) when they had food (no suffering from hunger). When hunger (suffering) hit, their behavior changed. This aligns with the idea that it's easy to be moral when not suffering.
• Option 2: The excerpt shows they struggled to survive even with some resourcefulness (fishing, etc.), so "all one needs" is incorrect.
• Option 3: The excerpt doesn't emphasize teamwork helping endure suffering; it's about resource scarcity and moral/rule - following change.
• Option 4: The conflict here isn't about a lack of strong leader making rules hard to follow, but about resource availability affecting moral/rule - following.

Answer:

A. It is easy to uphold morals when one is not suffering.