One characteristic of Enlightenment that is seen in this excerpt is that people should be guided by the reason and not irrational fears, however serious they may seem to be. The protagonist/author of the diary seems to be the only cool-headed person in this terrible situation. Everybody else is freaking out, running about and screaming. He notices multiple times that nobody is making any effort to actually quench the fire. He is the one who goes to warn the king and suggests that houses should be pulled down. There is one very interesting remark about Lord Mayor, who is in a panic just like everyone else: "To the King's message he cried, like a fainting woman..." Misogyny aside, this comment shows the speaker's manly, reasonable, commendable attitude. He is an active person who does something to undo the damage, and not just a passive observer or a coward who runs away in panic.
A diary entry was a fitting form during the Enlightenment period because that was the first time that the words and opinions of a more or less ordinary person were deemed important. A diary has this risk of being a subjective collection of personal impressions. But Pepys' diary pretends to be highly objective because its author sees himself as a reasonable man, important in his own right, competent enough to keep a diary and record some important things that happen around him, to other ordinary people.
The simple predicate is gave.
Answer:
The option which the opening paragraph does the least to accomplish is:
B. immediately pull the reader into the action
Explanation:
Let's work this one out through elimination:
A. The opening paragraph DOES establish a relationship between the narrator and a character. We are immediately told they are uncle and nephew.
B. This seems to be the right choice for us. There is not a lot of action going on. We do not know what the uncle is listening for, what to expect, what is going on. This dragging creates some suspense as we wait for the action to start.
C. The opening paragraph DOES provide a sense of setting. As soon as we are told about the "cornfield" and the "breeze", we can imagine the characters are on a farm, out in the open.
For me, the answer is letter D.
Only choice D has the technical words associated to geography. The rest of the choices contain common words that any mundane could use. But choice D talks about geology itself in the ocean which is highly influenced by drilling and mining. Knowledgeable readers would understand this because drilling and mining require workers to tap into the geological rocks deep beneath the ground which may cause a significant alteration in the oceanic geology.
