Read this passage from “to build a fire.” what is ironic about the man’s situation? it certainly was cold, was his thought. when he got back to the states he could tell the folks what real cold was. he drifted on from this to a vision of the old-timer on sulphur creek. he could see him quite clearly, warm and comfortable, and smoking a pipe. "you were right, old hoss; you were right," the man mumbled to the old-timer of sulphur creek. then the man drowsed off into what seemed to him the most comfortable and satisfying sleep he had ever known. it is dangerously cold in that part of the world. the man will live to tell the tale about his near-death experience. the old timer had warned the man about the cold. once the man accepts dying, he becomes comfortable.

Once the man accepts dying, he becomes comfortable.

Explanation:

Irony is a rhetorical device in which an event that appears, on the surface, to be a certain way, in fact differs radically from what is actually the case. In this excerpt, we learn that the man is freezing to death. Normally, we would expect that dying would bring a lot of suffering or stress to a person. However, in this passage, we learn that the man actually becomes more comfortable and happy as he approaches death.

source text: from the sketch here given it will be seen, that our good grandmothers differed considerably in their ideas of a fine figure, from their scantily dressed descendants of the present day. a fine lady, in those times, waddled under more clothes even on a fair summer's day, than would have clad the whole bevy of a modern ball room. nor were they the less admired by the gentlemen in consequence thereof. on the contrary, the greatness of a lover's passion seemed to increase in proportion to the magnitude of its object—and a voluminous damsel, arrayed in a dozen of petticoats, was declared by a low-dutch sonnetteer of the province, to be radiant as a sunflower, and luxuriant as a full blown cabbage. certain it is, that in those days, the heart of a lover could not contain more than one lady at a time; whereas the heart of a modern gallant has often room enough to accommodate half a dozen - - the reason of which i conclude to be, either that the hearts of the gentlemen have grown larger, or the persons of the ladies smaller — this however is a question for physiologists to determine. add punctuation to the following excerpt. writing under the name of diedrich knickerbocker washington irving aimed his potent satire at as diverse topics as political rivals such as thomas jefferson to the very ideal of looking back on the past affectionately: a fine lady, in those times, waddled under more clothes even on a fair summer's day, than would have clad the whole bevy of a modern ball room. a voluminous damsel, arrayed in a dozen of petticoats, was declared by a low-dutch sonnetteer of the province, to be radiant as a sunflower, and luxuriant as a full blown cabbage. in those days, the heart of a lover could not contain more than one lady at a time; whereas the heart of a modern gallant has often room enough to accommodate half a dozen

roses are red,

violets are black,

for what you said,

i hope you sit on a big fat tack.