Question

Select the correct answer.

Read the excerpt from "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry. What is the tone of the opening passage?

One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty- seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.

There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.

While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.

In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name "Mr. James Dillingham Young. "

The "Dillingham" had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, though, they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called "Jim" and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.

A.
dissatisfied
B.
humorous
C.
sarcastic
D.
unhappy

Answer 1

D

Step-by-step explanation:

Some people would find it humorous, but they are the same people that think it is funny to watch someone do a prat fall. It's not really humorous and hence not B.

Della is not dissatisfied. Not in the way wives can be. There are some wives who are eternally dissatisfied with their lot in life. Nothing can change their minds. Della is certainly not one of them. She is only heartbroken that she has such a small amount of money. Not A.

It's not sarcastic. Anything but. Della is head over heals for Jim. She just doesn't like having so little money to work with. Not C

There is only D left and she is very unhappy, but not with Jim. The $1.87 is what is making her unhappy.