Passage 1: The Open Window by H. H. Munro (Saki) “My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nuttel,” said a very self-possessed young lady of fifteen; “in the meantime you must try and put up with me.” Framton Nuttel endeavoured to say the correct something which should duly flatter the niece of the moment without unduly discounting the aunt that was to come. Privately he doubted more than ever whether these formal visits on a succession of total strangers would do much towards helping the nerve cure which he was supposed to be undergoing. “I know how this will be,” his sister had said when he was preparing to migrate to this rural retreat; “you will bury yourself down there and not speak to a living soul, and your nerves will be worse than ever from moping. I shall just give you letters of introduction to all the people I know there. Some of them, as far as I can remember, were quite nice.” Framton wondered whether Mrs. Sappleton, the lady to whom he was presenting one of the letters of introduction, came into the nice division.

Question

Passage 2: A Cup of Tea by Katherine Mansfield Of course, the car was there. She’d only to cross the pavement. But still she waited. There are moments, horrible moments in life, when one emerges from shelter and looks out, and it’s awful. One oughtn’t to give way to them. One ought to go home and have an extra-special tea. But at the very instant of thinking that, a young girl, thin, dark, shadowy—where had she come from?—was standing at Rosemary’s elbow and a voice like a sigh, almost like a sob, breathed: “Madame, may I speak to you a moment?” “Speak to me?” Rosemary turned. She saw a little battered creature with enormous eyes, someone quite young, no older than herself, who clutched at her coat-collar with reddened hands, and shivered as though she had just come out of the water. “M-madame,” stammered the voice. “Would you let me have the price of a cup of tea?” “A cup of tea?” There was something simple, sincere in that voice; it wasn’t in the least the voice of a beggar. “Then have you no money at all?” asked Rosemary. “None, madam,” came the answer. “How extraordinary!” Rosemary peered through the dusk, and the girl gazed back at her. How more than extraordinary! And suddenly it seemed to Rosemary such an adventure. It was like something out of a novel by Dostoevsky, this meeting in the dusk. Supposing she took the girl home? Supposing she did do one of those things she was always reading about or seeing on the stage, what would happen? It would be thrilling.

Which choice best compares the two passages?

A. The main characters are both focused on how an interaction with another character will affect themselves.
B. The narrator involves the reader in the story by directly addressing the reader.
C. The main characters are both thinking about how they can help other people that they meet
D. The narrator takes the reader deep into the thoughts of every character in the passage.

Answer 1

A. The main characters are both focused on how an interaction with another character will affect themselves.

In both passages, the main characters, Framton Nuttel and Rosemary, are preoccupied with their own feelings and thoughts regarding their encounters with others. Nuttel is concerned about how his visit will affect his nerve condition, focusing on his own discomfort. Similarly, Rosemary contemplates her own emotions and the thrill of the unexpected encounter with the girl asking for help, emphasizing her personal adventure rather than purely considering the girl's situation.