Read the excerpt from The Canterbury Tales. I can sting with my tongue; and when I preachI sting so hard, the fellow can’t escapeSlander and defamation, if so beHe’s wronged my fellow-pardoners, or me, Even if I don’t give his actual name, Yet everybody knows that he’s the oneFrom hints, and other circumstantialities—That’s how I deal with people who annoy us;That’s how I spit out venom, under guiseOf piety, and seem sincerely pious. How does the excerpt satirize the clergy?

C. By revealing the clergy's vindictive abuse of power.

Explanation:

Satirizing is a literary technique that writers use to express opinions or let their characters speak in such a way that ridicules others. This allows the criticizing or at times humorously critiquing any moral value, or vices.

The given excerpt is from 'The Pardoner's Prologue' of Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales". These lines from the prologue present the vindictive language the clergy used in his teaching at the pulpit. He admits "I can sting with my tongue; and when I preach I sting so hard", using language that is "slander and defamation". He continues "I spit out venom, under guise Of piety, and seem sincerely pious". All these languages show the clergy's vindictive abuse of power which he thinks is ordained to him as a preacher or leader of the church.

Thus, the correct answer is the third option.

d.) then bernice winced as marjorie tossed her own hair over her shoulders and began to twist it slowly into two long blond braids until in her cream-colored negligée she looked like a delicate painting of some saxon princess. fascinated, bernice watched the braids grow. heavy and luxurious they were, moving under the supple fingers like restive snakes—and to bernice remained this relic and the curling iron and a to-morrow full of eyes.

11-32. the main character in the parable, the forgiving father, whose character remains constant throughout the story, is a picture of god. in telling the story, jesus identifies himself with god in his loving attitude to the lost. the younger son symbolizes the lost (the tax collectors and sinners of that day, luke 15: 1), and the elder brother represents the self-righteous (the pharisees and teachers of the law of that day, luke 15: 2). the major theme of this parable seems not to be so much the conversion of the sinner, as in the previous two parables of luke 15, but rather the restoration of a believer into fellowship with the father. in the first two parables, the owner went out to look for what was lost (luke 15: 1-10), whereas in this story the father waits and watches eagerly for his son's return. we see a progression through the three parables from the relationship of one in a hundred (luke 15: 1-7), to one in ten (luke 15: 8-10), to one in one (luke 15: 11-32), demonstrating god’s love for each individual and his personal attentiveness towards all humanity. we see in this story the graciousness of the father overshadowing the sinfulness of the son, as it is the memory of the father’s goodness that brings the prodigal son to repentance (romans 2: 4).