Question

In "Goodbye to All That," Joan Didion writes that the days before she "knew the names of all the bridges were happier than the ones that came later." Which evidence from the text best supports the idea that her first years in New York were better than her last years in the city?

a) "The White Rose bars opened very early in the morning; I recall waiting in one of them to watch an astronaut go into space, waiting so long that at the moment it actually happened I had my eyes not on the television screen but on a cockroach on the tile floor."
B "I never bought any furniture in New York. For a year or so I lived in other people’s apartments; after that I lived in the Nineties in an apartment furnished entirely with things taken from storage by a friend whose wife had moved away."
c)"Nothing was irrevocable; everything was within reach. Just around every corner lay something curious and interesting, something I had never before seen or done or known about."
d)"Temporary exiles who always knew when the flights left for New Orleans or Memphis or Richmond or, in my case, California. Someone who lives always with a plane schedule in the drawer lives on a slightly different calendar."

Answer 1

c)"Nothing was irrevocable; everything was within reach. Just around every corner lay something curious and interesting, something I had never before seen or done or known about."

In this evidence, Didion is showing how she feels about New York when she first arrives. She talks about everything being new and interesting. She was constantly learning and experiencing new things. She felt as if she could do or be anything. The other options are the complete opposite. In option A she is in a bar looking down at a cockroach. This shows her more depressed state. In option B, it only states where she lived while she was in New York. Option D indicates that she was eager to leave New York. She knew the plane schedule that would take her to California.