Read the following poem: others abide our question. thou art free. we ask and ask-thou smilest and art still, out-topping knowledge. for the loftiest hill, who to the stars uncrowns his majesty, planting his steadfast footsteps in the sea, making the heaven of heavens his dwelling place, spares but the cloudy border of his base to the foiled searching of mortality. by matthew arnold the "loftiest hill" is a symbol for: a. a person of exceptional talent b. the world's highest mountain c. a king wearing a crown d. a very difficult question

Match the definition to the word for a better understanding of the paragraph. 1 money does not buy happiness or security. 2john ringling, one of the five brothers of the ringling brothers circus, started out in 1884 with a trained horse and a performing bear. 3for over forty years, he worked hard at the family enterprise, bought up smaller circuses, and imported new acts. 4in the 1920s, he was rated as one of the world's wealthiest men and owned every sizable circus in the country. 5over 5,000 people were on his payroll, and over 240 railroad cars were in his retinue each time the circus moved. 6at the time of his death, however, he was a nervous, unhappy man; he was also bankrupt and beset by lawsuits. 7his carefully built circus empire passed into alien hands. 8all those years of work had turned to dust. 1. business organization alien 2. group beset 3. without funds to pay debts retinue 4. troubled or harassed enterprise 5. strange; belonging to another person, place, country, or thing bankrupt