Read the passage from "The Storyteller.” The children moved listlessly towards the aunt’s end of the carriage. Evidently her rep
utation as a storyteller did not rank high in their estimation. In a low, confidential voice, interrupted at frequent intervals by loud, petulant questionings from her listeners, she began an unenterprising and deplorably uninteresting story about a little girl who was good, and made friends with every one on account of her goodness, and was finally saved from a mad bull by a number of rescuers who admired her moral character. "Wouldn’t they have saved her if she hadn’t been good?” demanded the bigger of the small girls. It was exactly the question that the bachelor had wanted to ask. "Well, yes,” admitted the aunt lamely, "but I don’t think they would have run quite so fast to her help if they had not liked her so much.” "It’s the stupidest story I’ve ever heard,” said the bigger of the small girls, with immense conviction. "I didn’t listen after the first bit, it was so stupid,” said Cyril. The smaller girl made no actual comment on the story, but she had long ago recommenced a murmured repetition of her favourite line. Which statement best explains the situational irony that occurs in the passage? The aunt expects the children to laugh at the story, but they do not. The children expect their aunt to tell a funny story, but she does not. The children do not like the story, even though it is very interesting. The aunt tells a story with a moral, but the children ignore the lesson.
