Question

Excerpt from The Right Decision

Lindsay Rock

(1) Timothy remained on the deck long after England had become but a speck on the horizon. (2) When darkness fell, he retired to the cramped quarters in steerage—the lowest passenger area with the fewest accommodations—and tried to make himself comfortable on a hard bunk bed with a thin, straw mattress. (3) Around him, mothers tried to keep their babies quiet and fathers told stories to tired kids. (4) For a long time, the hum of the ship's engine, the coughs and sniffles of seasick passengers, and the mixture of ten or twenty different languages kept him awake.

Read this paragraph from the passage. Which sentence revision uses more precise language than the description in the paragraph?

A) For a long time, the sounds of the ship and the people made it hard for him to fall asleep.
B) Timothy stayed outside for a long time even though he could no longer see his home country.
C) It took hours for him to fall asleep because of the mixture of many irritating and unfamiliar sounds.
D) Around him, mothers strived to hush crying babies and fathers invented stories to entertain exhausted children.

Answer 1

D) Around him, mothers strived to hush crying babies and fathers invented stories to entertain exhausted children.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

D) Around him, mothers strived to hush crying babies and fathers invented stories to entertain exhausted children is the correct answer.

Step-by-step explanation:

Based on the tone of the passage, the phrase marked with the number three has a different tone from the others. In this phrase, the language seems to be less solemn and formal than in the others; due to the situation narrated in the story (which is related to a farewell and the solemnity it involves) a more formal language is required; the other phrases do have it, so letter D is the correct answer because it provides this language and adjusts the phrase to the others.