Refer to Passage 1 of the excerpt from "A Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift on the Unit Test Reading Passages page to answer this question.

What is the stated purpose of the author's proposal?

a. to make poor children aware of the benefits provided to them by their parents

b. to make poor children beneficial rather than burdensome

c. to make the public aware of the burdens caused by poor children

d. to make poor children burdensome rather than beneficial

b. to make poor children beneficial rather than burdensome

Explanation:

" Modest Proposal" by Jonathan Swift published in 1729, is a Juvenalian Satirical essay. The essay is a mockery on the heartless acts towards the Irish poor and a poor British policy for the same.

"A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People from Being a Burthen to their Parents, or the Country, and for Making them Beneficial to the Publick," is the full title of Swift's essay.

The stated purpose of the author's proposal is letter b. to make poor children beneficial rather than burdensome.

Explanation:

Jonathan Swift published A Modest Proposal anonymously in 1729 to mock the way the poor were treated in Ireland as well as the British policies of the time. The Proposal has become a famous satire, especially due to the "seriousness" with which Swift develops his argument. His solution for the poor to stop being a burden is a bloody one: poor parents should begin to sell their children as food to the rich. He offers logical explanations for that suggestion, and even provides them with ideas as to how to cook the kids. Therefore, the main purpose of the Proposal is to make poor children beneficial rather than burdensome.