Select the correct answer.
What is satirized in this excerpt from Mark Twain's "The £1,000,000 Bank-Note"?
I was pretty nervous, in fact, pretty badly frightened, though, of course, I was no way in fault; but I knew men well enough to know that when they find they've given a tramp a million-pound bill when they thought it was a one-pounder, they are in a frantic rage against him instead of quarreling with their own near-sightedness, as they ought.
A.
the carelessness and short-tempered nature of British folks
B.
people's willingness to pick quarrels over small matters
C.
the lack of trust and respect Englishmen had for Americans
D.
the nature of people to blame others for their own mistakes or shortcomings
E.
the inability of people to trust others in matters involving money
D. the nature of people to blame others for their own mistakes or shortcomings
D. the nature of people to blame others for their own mistakes or shortcomings
To determine the correct answer, we can first analyze the excerpt from Mark Twain's "The £1,000,000 Bank-Note" and identify the elements being satirized.
In this excerpt, the speaker, who is given a million-pound bill instead of a one-pound bill, is nervous and frightened because they know that people tend to get angry and blame the tramp (the speaker) for their own mistake of giving the wrong bill. The speaker believes that people should instead blame their own near-sightedness.
From this analysis, we can understand that the passage satirizes the nature of people to blame others for their own mistakes or shortcomings.
Therefore, the correct answer is option D: the nature of people to blame others for their own mistakes or shortcomings.