1answer.
Ask question
Login Signup
Ask question
All categories
  • English
  • Mathematics
  • Social Studies
  • Business
  • History
  • Health
  • Geography
  • Biology
  • Physics
  • Chemistry
  • Computers and Technology
  • Arts
  • World Languages
  • Spanish
  • French
  • German
  • Advanced Placement (AP)
  • SAT
  • Medicine
  • Law
  • Engineering
Fed [463]
2 years ago
7

The billionaire by maxim gorkiy which of the following best expresses the central idea of this narrative ?

English
1 answer:
Effectus [21]2 years ago
8 0
1​The kings of steel, of petroleum, and all the other kings of the United States have always in a high degree excited my power of imagination. It seemed to me certain that these people who possess so much money could not be like other mortals.
2​Each of them (so I said to myself) must call his own, at least, three stomachs and a hundred and fifty teeth. I did not doubt that the millionaire ate without intermission, from six o'clock in the morning till midnight. It goes without saying, the most exquisite and sumptuous viands! Toward evening, then, he must be tired of the hard chewing, to such a degree that (so I pictured to myself) he gave orders to his servants to digest the meals that he had swallowed with satisfaction during the day. Completely limp, covered with sweat and almost suffocated, he had to be put to bed by his servants, in order that on the next morning at six o'clock he might be able to begin again his work of eating.
3​Nevertheless, it must be impossible for such a man -- whatever pains he might take -- to consume merely the half of the interest of his wealth.
4​To be sure, such a life is awful, but what is one to do? For what is one a millionaire -- what am I saying? -- a billionaire, if one cannot eat more than every other common mortal! I pictured to myself that this privileged being wore cloth-of-gold underclothing, shoes with gold nails, and instead of a hat a diadem of diamonds on his head. His clothes, made of the most expensive velvet, must be at least fifty feet long and fastened with three hundred gold buttons; and on holidays he must be compelled by dire necessity to put on over each other six pairs of costly trousers. Such a costume is certainly very uncomfortable. But, if one is rich like that, one can't after all dress like all the world.
5​The pocket of a billionaire, I pictured to myself so big that therein easily a church or the whole senate could find room. The paunch of such a gentleman I conceived to myself like the hull of an ocean steamer, the length and breadth of which I was not able to think out. Of the bulk, too, of a billionaire I could never give myself a clear idea; but I supposed that the coverlet under which he sleeps measures a dozen hundred square yards. If he chews tobacco, it was unquestionably only the best kind, of which he always sticks two pounds at a time into his mouth. And on taking snuff (I thought to myself) he must use up a pound at a pinch. Indeed, money will be spent! 6​His fingers must possess the magic power of lengthening at will. In spirit, I saw a New York billionaire as he stretched out his hand across Bering Strait and brought back a dollar that had rolled somewhere toward Siberia, without especially exerting himself thereby.
7​Curiously, I could form to myself no clear conception of the head of this monster. In this organism consisting of gigantic muscles and bones that is made for squeezing money out of all things, a head seemed to me really quite superfluous.
8​Who, now, can conceive my astonishment when, standing facing one of these fabulous beings, I arrived at the conviction that a billionaire is a human being like all the rest!
9​I saw there comfortably reclining in an armchair a long, wizened old man, who held his brown, sinewy hands folded across a body of quite ordinary dimensions. The flabby skin of his face was carefully shaved. The underlip, which hung loosely down, covered solidly built jaws, in which gilded teeth were stuck. The upper lip, smooth, narrow and pallid, scarcely moved when the old man spoke. Colorless eyes without brows, a perfectly bald skull. It might be thought that a little skin was wanting to this reddish face, to this countenance that was expressionless and puckered like that of one new-born. Was this being just beginning its life, or was it already nearing its end?
10​Nothing in his dress distinguished him from the ordinary mortal. A ring, a watch, and his teeth were all the gold he carried with him. Scarcely half a pound, all told! Taken altogether, the appearance of the man recalled that of an old servant of an aristocratic family in Europe.
You might be interested in
How effective is the challenge that kennedy offers in the final paragraphs of the speech
Andreyy89
It really depends on the person.
6 0
3 years ago
Select the correct answer.
Vedmedyk [2.9K]

Answer:

B

Explanation:

5 0
3 years ago
Read 2 more answers
“First, I went to the wrong classroom for math." What purpose does this sentence serve in the paragraph
Norma-Jean [14]
The sentence is stating what the person did first in the list of all the things he/she did in the rest of the paragraph.

<span><u><em /></u>See in the sentence how it says, <u><em>“First,</em></u> I went to the wrong classroom for math."



</span>
4 0
3 years ago
Read 2 more answers
Much of the meaning in the poem "Dust of Snow" is _____.
kramer

answer:

from a hemlock tree, is the completing sentence to dust of snow

<em>explanation:</em>

Dust of Snow is only eight lines long and seems to be the simplest of short poems. With full end rhyme and short lines on the surface the two stanzas appear to be nothing more than a snapshot of a trivial event concerning a crow, a tree, snow and a human being.

dust of snow has as its main themes:

communication between nature and humans.

nature healing and helping with negative human emotions.

the significance of small natural events

7 0
3 years ago
Select a sentence from the body of this article that can be be removed without affecting the author’s explanation. Explain why i
OLga [1]

Answer:

Americans lived in or near cities than they did in rural areas.

Answer:



Explanation:



Explanation:

6 0
1 year ago
Other questions:
  • Brake fade typically occurs when driving
    14·2 answers
  • What is an essential step in closely reading fiction?
    13·2 answers
  • The writing for chapter 5
    13·1 answer
  • What is odd about the dinner beorn offers his guests?
    12·1 answer
  • What is implied about the prioress in these lines from Chaucer's prologue to The Canterbury Tales?
    7·1 answer
  • What is the connection between a synopsis and a story?
    8·1 answer
  • 3 Choose the correct word (a–c) to complete the sentences. My brother came 1 ____________ 2 ____________ a ‘brilliant’ scheme to
    11·2 answers
  • Compare and contrast agriculture on the high islands and the low islands of Oceania.
    6·2 answers
  • The vaction to myrtle beach should be extremely restful;we leave next wendnesday
    11·1 answer
  • Select the correct text in the passage.
    14·1 answer
Add answer
Login
Not registered? Fast signup
Signup
Login Signup
Ask question!