English Language · English

Read the given passage and answer the question that follows: Once there lived a man who went around selling small rattraps of wire. He made them himself from the material he got by begging in the stores or at the big farms. However, the business was not especially profitable, so he had to resort to both begging and petty thieving to keep body and soul together. His clothes were in rags, his cheeks were sunken, and hunger gleamed in his eyes. No one can imagine how sad and monotonous life can appear to such a vagabond, who plods along the road, left to his meditations. But one day, this man had fallen into a line of thought, which really seemed to him entertaining. He had been thinking of his rattraps when suddenly he was struck by the idea that the whole world about him was nothing but a big rattrap. It had never existed for any other purpose than to set baits for people. It offered riches and joys, shelter and food, heat and clothing, exactly as the rattrap offered cheese and pork, and as soon as anyone let himself be tempted to touch the bait, it closed in on him, and then everything came to an end. What did the rattrap seller resort to when his business was not profitable?