Select the correct answer. what is the meaning of the underlined phrase in this excerpt from sonnet 126 by william shakespeare? o thou, my lovely boy, who in thy power dost hold time's fickle glass, his sickle, hour; a. time is changeable and inconstant. b. time and glass are immoral. c. time is liable to break like glass. d. time, like the glass or mirror, always reflects the truth. reset next

Solution: The 'lovely' boy is still young and beautiful and time has not yet degraded his beauty. So, the young boy seems to be 'holding' time powerfully. But the time is constantly changing, the charm is not going to last forever and will fade away. So option (a) is correct.

the speech this question is referring to is president kennedy's special message to the congress on urgent national needs, may 25, 1961

kennedy responds in a very direct and concrete way to those thinking that communism is a positive system:

"yet their aggression is more often concealed than open. they have fired no missiles; and their troops are seldom seen. they send arms, agitators, aid, technicians and propaganda to every troubled area. but where fighting is required, it is usually done by others--by guerrillas striking at night, by assassins striking alone--assassins who have taken the lives of four thousand civil officers in the last twelve months in vietnam alone--by subversives and saboteurs and insurrectionists, who in some cases control whole areas inside of independent nations." (kennedy)

president kennedy presents communism as cowardly, as a hidden and treacherous weapon that strikes from the shadows like thieves, he represents the system as not even being capable of showing and open and overt attack or confrontation. to finish up the response, he expresses that the system attacks even a country's idependence and freedom.