1. The most ironic thing about Van der Vyver's reaction to the death of the young black boy is his emotional breakdown and tears after telling what happened. 2. The sentence that best explains the irony implied by the above sentence is the third choice.
Van der Vyver is not a typical South African farmer; he feels remorse and takes responsibility for the accident.
3. The type of irony that it represents is situational.
4. The young black callously shot through the negligence of the white man was not the farmer’s boy; he was his son heartlessly.
5. Over-using to be verbs can weaken a sentence. The statement is true.
These questions belong to the short story <em>"The Moment when the Gun Went Off"</em> written by Nadine Gordimer. The setting of the story is Africa in the years previous to the fall of the Apartheid.
The correct answers are the following:
The most ironic thing about Van der Vyver's reaction to the death of the young black boy is his emotional breakdown and tears after telling what happened.
The sentence that best describes the irony is: <em>"Van der Vyver is not a typical South African farmer; he feels remorse and takes responsibility for the accident."</em>
This represents a situational irony. Situational irony occurs when something completely unexpected and contrary to what was expected happens.
The word referred to is <em>"callously"</em> and it means heartlessly.
The statement "Over-using to be verbs can weaken a sentence" is true.
