In the following excerpt from The Mother Tongue and How it Got That Way, writer Bill Bryson considers the pros and cons of having, historically, one "mother tongue" in which to write and publish. Read the passage. Then, determine what the author assumes about his audience.
The Gaelic of Ireland may well be the next to go. We naturally lament the decline of these languages, but it is not an altogether undiluted tragedy. Consider the loss to English literature if Joyce, Shaw, Swift, Yeats, Wilde, Synge, Behan, and Ireland's other literary masters had written in what is inescapably a fringe language. Their words would be as little known to us as those of the poets of Iceland or Norway, and that would be a tragedy indeed. No country has given the world more incomparable literature per head of population than Ireland, and for that reason alone we might be excused a small, selfish celebration that English was the language of her greatest writers.
a. He assumes that the audience shares his taste in literature.
b. He assumes that the audience speaks Gaelic.
c. He assumes that the audience knows Icelandic and Norwegian poetry.
d. He assumes that the audience is Irish.
