Question

Read the excerpt from "A Modest Proposal."

Thus the squire will learn to be a good landlord, and grow popular among his tenants, the mother will have eight shillings neat profit, and be fit for work till she produces another child.

On which false premise does this excerpt rely?

that a woman would be willing to pay her landlord rent
that a woman would be willing to breed children to sell
that a woman would be willing to keep the children she bears
that a woman would be willing to take over her landlord’s business

Answer 1

that a woman would be willing to breed children to sell

Explanation: Swift's satirical narrator assumes mothers would gladly produce and sell infants for profit — a deliberately outrageous, false premise meant to expose the inhumanity of the proposal.