I believe it is the introduction which should be relatively brief. You shouldn't prolong it too much, because the emphasis should be put on the main part of your speech, and not so much on the introduction.
Answer: In this passage, Willis is expressing that literature is a message from the past telling us about the lives of those before us. We are told that these messages are trying to tell us how we live and how we die based on others experiences. Willis tries to explain this through a concerned, yet passionate tone that urges us, the readers, to learn from the mistakes and the fortunes of the lives of people before us. We can only do this through literature, as it is the gateway to seeing how the world works.
Explanation:
A middle class woman would most often have held the job of a (C) Teacher.
Being a teacher is considered as a respectable job. Whereas the other options were jobs that were most often held by lower class women.
