These are two different verbs: one means: to be positioned horizontally (lie) and the other to position something else horizontally, to put something down (lay)
They sound similar and have a meaning connected to being horizontal, that's one reason for their confusion.
Make sure you also don't confuse their past tenses:
Lay: laid
lie: lay
Yes, Lay is the present tense of one of them and the past of the other: that's the other reason for their confusion!
Answer:
The answer to Part A would be Ignorant, as the author goes on to state that his youthful understanding had struggled in vain. If someone is ignorant of something, yet they do not take the time to actually go research or learn about that thing, then they would be struggling in vain because they are selfish and not taking time to research what it is that the other person is saying that they do not understand.
For the answer to Part B, I would say that (Frederick) Douglass' new awareness of how owners maintain control over slaves allows him to better understand how to improve his situation. I say this because he seems to have an awakening/epiphany in the very last line: "I now understood what had been to me a most perplexing difficulty".
Explanation:
I hope this helps!
<span>Self-concept
is a social psychology term pertaining to the person’s understanding of
himself, his own existence and how he views himself with others and his
surroundings. To improve one’ self-concept, he needs to know, love yourself and
be truthful to himself. Getting to know on what you really want, what you don’t
want, how you react and think over certain situations is the first step.
Secondly is understanding and accepting oneself and learning to love yourself
no matter how ugly you think you are. And lastly, be truthful to oneself all
the time. If you don’t want to go then don’t go, if you don’t agree then don’t,
be as simple and genuine to what you really feel.</span>
I had begun by tracing the Japanese characters with a pencil.
*begun is a past participle