Read the following passage and then select the correct answer to the question below: THE WORLD WITH A THOUSAND MOONS From CHAPTE
R 1: Thrill Cruise By Edmond Hamilton He looked hopelessly across the dark spaceport. It was a large one, for this ancient town of Syrtis was the main port of Mars. The forked light of the flying moons showed many ships docked on the tarmac—a big liner, several freighters, a small, shining cruiser and other small craft. And for lack of one of those ships, his hopes were ruined! A squat, brawny figure in shapeless space-jacket came to Kenniston's side. It was Holk Or, the Jovian who had been waiting for him. "What luck?" asked the Jovian in a rumbling whisper. "It's hopeless," Kenniston answered heavily. "There isn't a small cruiser to be had at any price. The meteor-miners buy up all small ships here." "The devil!" muttered Holk Or, dismayed. "What are we going to do? Go on to Earth and get a cruiser there?" "We can't do that," Kenniston answered. "You know we've got to get back to that asteroid within two weeks. We've got to get a ship here." Desperation made Kenniston's voice taut. His lean, hard face was bleak with knowledge of disastrous failure. Which sentence provides the best summary of this excerpt? 1)
Lance Kenniston had a lean face and was friends with a Jovian man named Holk Or.
2)
The town called Syrtis was ancient and served as the main port for space ships in Mars.
3)
Lance Kenniston needed a ship to get to an asteroid, but nothing was available.
4)
Lance Kenniston and Holk Or were both feeling desperate during their stay on Mars.
The last one. They can't go on and they can't stay where they are. They've got to be on their home asteroid in two weeks which we are to think that there is not enough time to go to earth to get a cruiser and return home in that. Nor can they stay where they are. They know that the miners have taken every ship available. They're caught in a net and there doesn't seem to be any solution.
One is just a statement of the way one of the characters looked. It is a quick observation about the way he looked. "Lean and Hungry" is another way to describe him. If there was a way of getting a ship, the way he looks tells us that he would have found a way.
Two is just a fact that is part of the setting. He's at the biggest port on Mars. Nothing there. How the 2 characters feel about that is more important than where they were. We just have to know that if there is nothing in that city, there's going to be nothing anywhere else on Mars.
Three is close, but four is better because it is more emotional. The second best answer is Three.
