Select the correct answer.
Which sentence is an oxymoron?
A.
To have peace, we must go to war.
B.
A glass can be viewed as either half full or half empty.
C.
The lawyer was deceptively honest with his clients.
D.
Spies do not dress like spies.
E.
Though the lab was messy, there was a method to his madness.
C. The lawyer was deceptively honest with his clients.
To determine which sentence is an oxymoron, we need to understand the definition of an oxymoron. An oxymoron is a figure of speech that combines two contradictory terms. Now let's analyze each sentence provided:
A. "To have peace, we must go to war." This sentence is not an oxymoron because it does not combine contradictory terms; instead, it presents a cause-and-effect relationship.
B. "A glass can be viewed as either half full or half empty." This sentence does not contain contradictory terms, but it does present opposing perspectives.
C. "The lawyer was deceptively honest with his clients." This sentence is an oxymoron because it combines the contradictory terms "deceptive" and "honest."
D. "Spies do not dress like spies." This sentence is not an oxymoron because it states that spies do not dress like themselves, which is not contradictory.
E. "Though the lab was messy, there was a method to his madness." This sentence does not contain contradictory terms; instead, it expresses that there is an underlying reason or strategy for the apparent chaos.
Therefore, the sentence that is an oxymoron is C. "The lawyer was deceptively honest with his clients."