I looked this question up and found the excerpt it refers to, as well as the answer choices. They are the following:
Hearts with one purpose alone
Through summer and winter seem
Enchanted to a stone
To trouble the living stream.
The horse that comes from the road.
The rider, the birds that range
From cloud to tumbling cloud,
Minute by minute they change;
A shadow of cloud on the stream
Changes minute by minute;
A horse-hoof slide on the brim,
And a horse plashes within it;
The long-legged moor-hens dive,
And hens to moor-coc.ks call;
Minute by minute they live:
The stone's in the midst of all.
Too long a sacrifice
Can make a stone of the heart.
a) He is repelled by their implacable hatred for the English.
b) He admires their fixity of purpose and their sacrifice for their country.
c) He wishes he could share their immovable commitment to their cause.
d) He feels that they have been unable to adapt to the changing times.
Answer:
The lines of the excerpt suggest the following about the speaker's view:
d) He feels that they have been unable to adapt to the changing times.
Explanation:
The lines above were taken from the poem "Easter, 1916" by W. B. Yeats. We can tell that, in the speaker's opinion, those who took part in the Easter Rising were unable to adapt to the changing times. The Easter Rising took place in Dublin, when a group of revolutionaries occupied government buildings. Their purpose was to declare Ireland to be an independent country from England.
According to the speaker, everything changes. Nature is in constant adaptation, which seems to be the best path for all things. However, he says it is possible for a heart to not change, especially after "too long a sacrifice". So, unlike everything else in the natural world, the hearts of those revolutionaries were like stones - immovable, unchanging. They had only one purpose, and that determination - and lack of flexibility - cost them their lives.
