Question

henry david thoreau was greatly influenced by the writing and teaching of ralph waldo emerson. as a result, he too became a transcendentalist. one statement mr. emerson made in his work “self reliance” was “whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.” mr. thoreau took mr. emerson at his word, and for two years he lived in a cabin he himself built beside walden pond on mr. emerson’s property. he wrote of his experience in a book called walden. mr. thoreau wanted life to have meaning for him, but his without a personal relationship with jesus christ is always meaningless. as believers, we know the secret to a meaningful life—finding god’s plan for us and fulfilling that plan. read this excerpt from walden, in which mr. thoreau explains why he went to walden pond. i went to the woods because i wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if i could not learn what it nature had to teach, and not, when i came to die, discover that i had not lived. i did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did i wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. i wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, ... to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world. . . . (1) notice the italicized phrase above. which of the following would you interpret it to mean? place a check (✓) beside your choice. a. he did not want to discover that he was not a believer. b. he did not want to discover that he had lived without purpose. c. he did not want to be very sick before he died. we do not know whether or not, at death, mr. thoreau felt his life had had purpose, but we do have the recorded statement of a believer (the apostle paul) when he was about to die

Explanation:

To solve this, we analyze the italicized phrase (from the Walden excerpt: "I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, ... to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world...") and the options:

• Option a: The excerpt shows Thoreau exploring life's essence, not avoiding discovering he's not a believer. The text focuses on living meaningfully, not belief status. Eliminate a.
• Option b: The key is Thoreau wanting to live deeply, "suck out all the marrow of life", meaning he wanted to discover purpose (what is "life" for him) rather than live without it. So he did not want to discover he lived without purpose. This matches the phrase's intent of seeking purposeful living.
• Option c: The excerpt doesn't mention sickness or dying, so c is irrelevant.

Answer:

b. He did not want to discover that he had lived without purpose.