All night, they had walked silently. The mules were flagging. The wind blew hard. Their stomachs, empty since yesterday, no long
er made noise. The girl walked numbly on, as in a trance. She could no longer feel the earth beneath her feet. Why would the author most likely include this passage at the beginning of a story?
A. To set up a conflict among the main characters
B. To establish the motivation of the main character
C. To identify the story as an example of a particular tradition
D. To make the reader question what is happening in the story
By starting the story in the middle of the conflict, the author is trying to make the reader question what is happening and what has happened before. This way, the reader feels encouraged to keep reading so as to discover the events that led to the initial situation.
