Read the excerpt below and answer the question.

behold, i answer to him who asks, what was god doing before he made heaven and earth? i answer not, as a certain person is reported to have done facetiously (avoiding the pressure of the question), he was preparing hell, says he, for those who pry into mysteries. (confessions, book xi, chapter 12)

what is st. augustine’s point in the above excerpt?
a)he mocks scholars who are guilty of laziness. b)he demonstrates the dangers of intellectual pride. c)he encourages readers to use their reason to explore mysteries. d)he reconciles aristotle’s theory of time with medieval science.

The answer is B: He demonstrates the dangers of intellectual pride.

  St. Augustine knows that God has  ways to communicate with humankind, which is through prayer, meditation, dreams etc. and is willing to answer questions and even curiosities.  Nevertheless, there are matters in which man should acknowledge their limitation related to God's wisdom, mystery and purposes, and, being a creation, avoid a too high thinking that might interfere in God's knowledge.

b)  He demonstrates the dangers of intellectual pride.

In this excerpt, St. Augustine mentions that he was once asked a question about what God was doing before he made Heaven and Earth.  To St. Augustine, this was seen as questioning God by not accepting where the story of creation begins because of what could be considered pride.  And, as you may know, pride and non-acceptance is what caused Lucifer to rebel.  Thus, in a somewhat humorous fashion says his reply was “He was preparing Hell […] for those who pry into mysteries.”  And, this is how he warns to not have such pride as it may, in the end, be condemning.    

innocence can be defined as the lack of sin, relating it with the lack of guilt, also it can be a synonime of naivety. most people agree that sins are made out of experiences, intentionally or not, as well as you stop being naive once certain things happen to you throughout your life. so, with this explained, the chosen answers are:

when the boy saw the effects of war, he no longer viewed life as innocent.

the loss of innocence is a result of gaining experience and making mistakes.

one way to define innocence is as a lack of worldly experience or sophistication.

the answer is: the start of world war i, and russia’s hopes of benefiting from it

during world war i russian joined due to in their current crisis they were being supported by france and the war was already declared to them by germany, they needed to maintain their political goal and leadership role in the balkans, and is the same feeling that this excerpt evoke the eager of maintain the land value.