Question

PLEASE HELP!!!!

Which of the following quotes supports the idea that the major conflict or complicating incident of "The Interlopers" is when the tree falls on the two men?


He strayed away by himself from the watchers whom he had placed in ambush on the crest of the hill and wandered far down the steep slopes amid the wild tangle of undergrowth, peering through the tree trunks and listening through the whistling and skirling of the wind and the restless beating of the branches for sight or sound of the marauders.


But a man who has been brought up under the code of a restraining civilization cannot easily nerve himself to shoot down his neighbor in cold blood and without a word spoken, except for an offense against his hearth and honor.


And before the moment of hesitation had given way to action, a deed of Nature’s own violence overwhelmed them both. A fierce shriek of the storm had been answered by a splitting crash over their heads, and ere they could leap aside, a mass of falling beech tree had thundered down on them.


Georg was silent for a moment; then he answered quietly: “Are you sure that your men will find much to release? I have men, too, in the forest tonight, close behind me, and they will be here first and do the releasing. When they drag me out from under these branches, it won’t need much clumsiness on their part to roll this mass of trunk right over on the top of you.

Answer 1

And before the moment of hesitation had given way to action, a deed of Nature’s own violence overwhelmed them both. A fierce shriek of the storm had been answered by a splitting crash over their heads, and ere they could leap aside, a mass of falling beech tree had thundered down on them.

In this passage the tree falls on the two men. This happens right before the men are about to take action against each other. This acts as the complicating incident because the men are no longer able to shoot each other since they are stuck under a tree. They are still planning the other's death after the tree falls on them when they talk about how their men could make it look like the tree killed him.

Answer 2

I took this test the answer is C) And before the moment of hesitation had given way to action, a deed of Nature’s own violence overwhelmed them both. A fierce shriek of the storm had been answered by a splitting crash over their heads, and ere they could leap aside, a mass of falling beech tree had thundered down on them.