Question

read the passage. then answer the question that follows.
antony. friends, romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
i come to bury caesar, not to praise him.
the evil that men do lives after them;
the good is oft interrèd with their bones.
so let it be with caesar. the noble brutus
hath told you caesar was ambitious.
if it were so, it was a grievous fault,
and grievously hath caesar answered it.
here, under leave of brutus and the rest—
for brutus is an honourable man,
so are they all, all honourable men—
come i to speak in caesar’s funeral.
which is the best summary of this part of antony’s speech?
○ antony calls the assassins \honourable men\ but subtly turns the crowd against them.
○ antony believes that if caesar were truly ambitious, he paid the price for it.
○ when people die, the good they have done is often lost and their evil deeds endure.
○ antony agrees with brutus that caesar was ambitious.

Explanation:

• Analyze Option 1: Antony repeatedly calls the assassins (like Brutus) "honourable men" but uses irony. His words subtly make the crowd question the assassins' actions, turning them against the assassins. This matches the speech's tone and purpose.
• Analyze Option 2: The speech isn't about Caesar's ambition leading to his punishment but about undermining the assassins' justification, so this is incorrect.
• Analyze Option 3: This is a general statement about people's deeds, not a summary of Antony's speech (which focuses on the assassins and Caesar's death), so incorrect.
• Analyze Option 4: Antony doesn't agree with Brutus; he uses irony to show the opposite, so this is incorrect.

Answer:

A. Antony calls the assassins "honourable men" but subtly turns the crowd against them.