English L iterature: Swift’s “ A Modest P roposal” This lecture tells us about the miseries of the children in Ireland in the 18 th century. Due to the (1) of their families, they lived in terrible conditions, suffering from lack of food and clothes. In (2) , Jonathan Swift wrote an article called “ A Modest Proposal ” , suggesting ironically that the poor people ’ s children at the age of (3) be sold into a meat market. In order to justify his proposal, Swift listed out several advantages: 1) solving problems such as (4) ; 2) saving the expense of raising children; 3) increasing the poor families ’ (5) ; 4) giving the rich a new eating experience; 5) contributing to the overall economic well-being of Ireland; etc. However, we should not take the article (6) and should remember that the author means to get the (7) audience ’ s attention to the difficult lives of the poor Irish people. In this article, Swift also criticized the uselessness of Ireland ’ s politicians, the hypocrisy of the wealthy and the (8) of the English. He showed sympathy for the misery of the Irish people, but also criticized them for their (9) in dealing with their own problems. He believed that the English, the Irish themselves and the Irish politicians were all (10) the terrible situation of Ireland.