In this passage, the phrase "the breach" refers to D) the division within the United States. The narrator expresses concern about the potential for civil war and reflects on the separation and conflict emerging in the country, indicating a significant divide among its people.
Passage A
The narrator of this passage describes the early days of the U.S. Civil War.
Our friends and neighbors have left us. Everything is broken up. The Theological Seminary is closed; the High School dismissed. Scarcely anyone is left of the many families that surround us. The homes all look desolate, yet this beautiful country is looking more peaceful and lovelier than ever, as if to rebuke the tumult of passion and the fanaticism of man. We are left lonely indeed. Our children are all gone: the girls to Clarke, where they may be safer, and farther from the exciting scenes which may too surround us; and the boys, the dear, dear boys, to the camp, to be drilled and prepared to meet any emergency.
Can it be that our country is to be carried on and on to the horrors of civil war? I shut my eyes and hold my breath when the thoughts of what may come upon us obtrudes itself; yet I cannot believe it. I know the breach will be healed without the effusion of blood. The taking of Fort Sumter without bloodshed has somewhat soothed my fears, though I am told by those who are wiser than I that men must fall on both sides by the score, by the hundred, and even by the thousand. But it is not my habit to look on the dark side, so I try hard to employ myself, and hope for the best.
Today our house seems so deserted that I feel more sad than usual, for on this morning we took leave of our whole household. I go from room to room, looking at first one thing and then another, so full of sad associations. The closed piano, the locked bookcase, the nicely arranged tables, the formally placed chairs, ottomans and sofas in the parlor! Oh, for someone to put them out of order!
I heard distinctly the drums beating in Washington. The evening was so still that I seemed to hear nothing else.
(Source)
Question 7
7.
In this passage, the phrase "the breach" refers to
Afriends and neighbors leaving the narrator behindBchildren leaving the narrator behindCthe taking of Fort Sumter without bloodshedDDthe division within the United States
1 answer