Question

The following item has two parts. Answer Part A first, and then Part B.

Part A
What is the most likely meaning of affront in paragraph 4 of the selection?
A. support
B. insult
C. praise
D. criticism
Part B
Which context clue in the paragraph best helps you determine the answer to Part A?
A. “became popular again”
B. “Britain’s Parliament passed the act”
C. “a matter of basic respect”
D. “newspapers added the cartoon”

The image of the disjointed snake became popular again during the protests over the Stamp Act of 1765. Britain"s Parliament passed the act to impose a tax on the American colonists. However, colonists had no elected representatives in Britain"s Parliament. The idea of taxation without representation seemed an affront to their liberty. It was a matter of basic respect for people’s rights to allow them a say in the government that taxed them. Some newspapers added the cartoon to their masthead in 1774, before the Revolution.

Answer 1

Part A: B (insult)

Part B: C (“a matter of basic respect for people’s rights…”) — this phrase shows that taxation without representation violated/insulted their freedom, clarifying affront means an offense.