Question

Read the excerpt from chapter 1 of The Awakening.

Answer 1

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She held up her hands, strong, shapely hands, and surveyed them critically, drawing up her fawn sleeves above the wrists. Looking at them reminded her of her rings, which she had given to her husband before leaving for the beach. Which is the best evidence that “surveyed” means “looked at”?

The author uses both “surveyed” and “looking” to describe the narrator observing her hands.

The author uses a verb form of “to survey” instead of “to look” to help the reader visualize more clearly.

The author is describing a character’s strong, shapely hands, with missing rings on the fingers.

The author is describing a routine, personal exchange between a wife and her husband.

Answer:

The author uses both “surveyed” and “looking” to describe the narrator observing her hands.

Explanation:

It is very common for authors to give clues as to what a word means. Those are called context clues and can be used by readers to decipher a new or uncommon word without looking it up at a dictionary. In the passage we are studying here, the author Kate Chopin used two verbs to describe the same action. She first mentions how the character surveyed her own hands. In the sentence the immediately follows, she continues describing the same action, but now saying the character is looking at her hands. From that context clue, the reader can safely conclude that "survey" and "look at" refer to the same action and are, thus, synonyms in this context.