In the passage above, the author uses humor to comment on the foolishness of people. This scene is from the fourth chapter of "The War of the World" novel written by H.G. Wells titled "The Cylinder Opens". The author uses the passage above to describe the foolishness of people because they were very interested with the cylinder with no reason.
The purpose of the concluding sentence in a paragraph is to catch the reader's eye only. So yes
The fill up for this blank is against me
b because the quote is talking about the consequences that come with "not reading proficiently" (illiteracy)
