Question

Read the excerpt from act 1 of The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.

WOMAN ONE

(a little reluctantly)

Well . . . sometimes I go to bed late at night. A couple of times . . . a couple of times I'd come out on the porch and I'd see Mr. Goodman here in the wee hours of the morning standing out in front of his house . . . looking up at the sky.

(she looks around the circle of faces)

Based on the dialogue and stage directions, what should the reader imagine in this scene?

a woman talking to herself about something she saw
a woman talking to a group of eager listeners
a crowd of people discussing a woman’s story
a man listening to a woman tell a story

Answer 1

The correct answer is B. A woman talking to a group of eager listeners.

Step-by-step explanation

According to the fragment and the stage directions, the reader can infer that it is a woman who is speaking because the text is preceded by the subtitle "woman one". Second, it can be inferred that she does not feel good about the situation that she is recounting due to the stage direction "a little reluctantly". Finally, it can be inferred that she is addressing a crowd of people since the stage direction is enunciating "she looks around the circle of faces". and these people are likely quite interested in her story. So the correct answer is B.