The word "diffidence" as used in paragraph 11 most likely means:
A. to be responsible
B. the quality or state of being unassertive, meekness
C. to be wealthy
D. being wreckless

The correct answer is B) the quality or state of being unassertive, meekness.

Explanation:

The excerpt from the passage  - The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin refers. Here the writer indicates that he had learned a thing or two on his quest to better his grip of  English grammar.

According to him, he had also mastered the use of rhetoric and logic and with a facade of a humble enquirer and doubter and became proficient in winning arguments and concession even from people who were masters at their own subject areas or expertise.

The trick there was to appear to not know, unchallenging and almost ignorant, a strategy which lowered the "defensive" walls of the respondents. It is in this light that the writer uses the word diffidence.

Towards the end of the excerpt, he quotes the 8th line of Alexander Pope's writ "An Essay on Criticism: Part 3" where it former in advising on how to approach criticism advises as follows:

"And speak, though sure, with seeming diffidence"

Cheers

1.the hosts on two opposing mountains stood,  

2.thick as the foliage of the waving wood;  

3.between them an extensive valley lay,  

4.o'er which the gleaming armour pour'd the day,  

5.when from the camp of the philistine foes,

6. dreadful to view, a mighty warrior rose; in the dire deeds of bleeding battle skill'd,

the anwser is went creeping down the river again, across the wide lonely marshes to the sea.

i longed to go with them out into the world to seek my fortune in foreign lands—africa, india, china and peru!

and, dreaming of the lands i had never seen, i'd sit on there, watching till they were out of sight.