Ladies and gentlemen. a. it is not the first time that we have gathered together under b. this hospitable roof, around this hospitable board. c. it is not the first time we have been d. the recipients - or perhaps the victims – of the hospitality of certain good ladies.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is not the first time that we have gathered together under this hospitable roof, around this hospitable board. It is not the first time that we have been the recipients - or perhaps, I had better say, the victims - of the hospitality of certain good ladies.

Explanation:

The Dead is a short story wrote by James Joyce in 1914.

This is a paragraph of a dialogue in the text, and the order is a. b. c. and d.

Ladies and Gentlemen, it is not the first time that we have gathered together under this hospitable roof, around this hospitable board. It is not the first time that we have been the recipients - or perhaps, I had better say, the victims - of the hospitality of certain good ladies.

first of all the mood needs to be defined: it is obviously a mood of deceitful relief and serenity. why? because the cape horn is one of the most violent maritime regions of earth and although it has been left behind, it is a personification of ahab’s delirium and the fact that the end of the passage speaks about it about being “hidden” but “raving” immediately conveys the feeling the calm is not permanent but fleeting.

furthermore, the oxymoron “mild stun'sails” is the first instance of such feeling as the adjective “mild” is associated with “stunned” underscoring the fleeting nature of this “tranquil” moment. and the contrasts keep piling up, with the opposition between “dark den” and “blessed light and air” to end with the final conclusion that leaves the reader with the uneasy knowledge that this is just a reprieve.

the significance of the title, "the passing", is related to the fact that the main characters, who are three african-american descendant women, are passing as white. this means that, because of their light-coloured skins they look like white women. one of the three friends, clare, is married to a white man and she lives in a white community and she has never told her husband that she is black. the title can easily be connected to the idea of pretending to be someone you are not and of losing your real identity in order to be accepted by society.