Question

Read the passage from Gulliver's Travels.

He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers. He told me, he did not doubt, that, in eight years more, he should be able to supply the governor’s gardens with sunshine, at a reasonable rate: but he complained that his stock was low, and entreated me "to give him something as an encouragement to ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear season for cucumbers."

Which phrase from the passage best helps the reader to identify the passage as a satire?

He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers
which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed
He told me, he did not doubt, that, in eight years more, he should be able to supply the governor’s gardens
but he complained that his stock was low

Answer 1

"He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers."

Explanation: the absurdity of trying to extract sunlight from cucumbers signals satire—Swift mocks pseudoscientific or impractical projects.