Read the paragraph from Utopia. The building or the repairing of houses among us employ many hands, because often a thriftless heir suffers a house that his father built to fall into decay, so that his successor must, at a great cost, repair that which he might have kept up with a small charge; it frequently happens that the same house which one person built at a vast expense is neglected by another, who thinks he has a more delicate sense of the beauties of architecture, and he, suffering it to fall to ruin, builds another at no less charge. Which words from the text most effectively help indicate the meaning of the word thriftless as it is used in this passage?

A person who is thriftless is one who spends a great deal of money in a way that seems to be wasteful. The text says that the heir spends a lot of money to repair a house which has fallen into decay when the heir could have spent much less if he had just kept up with it. This idea is continued when it says that a house which one built at a vast expense is then ruined and another is built at "no less charge."

Answer Link