Question

Read the passage from "The Storyteller." The children moved listlessly towards the aunt’s end of the carriage. Evidently her reputation 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?

Answer 1

Answer:

The statement that best explains the situational irony is: "The smaller girl made no actual comment on the story, but she had long ago recommenced a murmured repetition of her favourite line".

Explanation:

A situational irony refers to a situation that turns out the opposite from what was intended. In the passage, the three kids are noisy and asking questions, so the aunt tries to calm them down with a storytelling, but the result is that her story is boring and "stupid" as the small girl, Cyril, says.

Nevertheless, the best statement that shows the situational irony is the one in which the smaller girl simply keeps on what she was doing: repeating her favorite line from the poem "On The Road to Mandalay", for the aunt did not captivated her attention even a little, and that is a sign that the aunt's intention did not ended as she expected at all.

Answer 2

Answer:

These are the two options that provide examples of situational irony. We learn that the girl only knows a single line of verse, which she repeats a couple thousand times. We can imagine this is not amusing or appreciated. Therefore, the aunt interrupts and promises a story. Although the reader expects this entertainment to be better than the one the girl provided, the irony is that the children do not want to listen to it, and that the aunt's story is just as boring.