Question

If you stumbled upon a black hole and found yourself falling feet-first toward its center, then as you got closer, the black hole’s force of gravity would grow astronomically.

Read the stanza from “Man Listening to Disc.”

This is not bad—
ambling along 44th Street
with Sonny Rollins for company,
his music flowing through the soft calipers
of these earphones,

Which statement best summarizes the two excerpts?
In both pieces the narrators are in grave danger.
In both pieces the narrators are carefree and in no apparent hurry.
In both pieces the narrators are unable to connect with others.
In both pieces the narrators are unaware of their surroundings.

Answer 1

"In both pieces the narrators are unable to connect with others."

Both excerpts put the speaker in solitude: the black-hole passage describes a lone, isolated fall, and the stanza shows the speaker walking with music as their only companion rather than interacting with other people.