Question

Read the passage.

excerpt from "A Relay Race to Remember"
As the relay teams collected their swim caps and goggles and began to head to the bullpen, Malik’s ankle was a pretzel ready to crumble. The young men on the relay began to stretch as they waited for their chance to swim. Malik elongated his leg and then hobbled, but caught himself before anyone detected his frailty. His teammate Sean saw Malik wince. Sean was the alternate for the relay, and if anyone couldn’t swim, he was the one who would take his place. Sean was a proficient swimmer, not as fast in freestyle as Malik, but he had been training persistently for the competition and had refined his skill through the weeks. Malik said to Sean, “Man, I want to swim in this relay so bad. I want that medal for my last race with the team, but I don’t know if I can do it.” He tossed his goggles to the ground as the relay team was called up to swim.
How does the simile "Malik's ankle was a pretzel ready to crumble" affect the story?


It develops Malik's character by showing how much he wanted to swim to help his team.

It develops Sean's character by showing how he responds to Malik.

It raises the tension in the story by making a comparison that conveys the severity of Malik’s injury.

It raises the tension in the story by contrasting Malik's sportsmanship with the behavior of the other team.

Answer 1

The answer is the third option: It raises the tension in the story by making a comparison that conveys the severity of Malik’s injury.

Step-by-step explanation:

A simile is a figure of speech used for comparison. In the excerpt we are analyzing here, comparing an ankle to a pretzel ready to crumble means the injury is serious and will probably keep Malik from taking part in the relay. Letting the reader know about that raises the tension in story. The reader pictures a pretzel crumbling due to the simile and is, thus, able to picture how bad the injure is.