Question

Selection 2: Uh, Thanks for the Help?

1 Randall Smith, owner of Security Now, shook his head as he surveyed his store. What a mess!
2 A month ago, his accountant had reminded him that he was required to perform an inventory at the end of the year. Randall had gratefully accepted the help of his “creative” nephew, Jared, the graphic artist. Turned out Jared had been a little too creative in his labeling, and Randall found himself opening boxes just to find out what was inside. Then, with just a week to go, Miguel, Randall’s assistant, decided he needed time off to study for his finals.
3 With only days before the deadline, Randall surveyed the disorder. Opened boxes filled with cameras, locks, and keypads were strewn about the storeroom floor. Incomplete inventory sheets were pinned to half the shelves. Randall wasn’t sure how he was going get everything in order by the weekend. Never enough help when you need it, he grumbled.
4 Randall finished off an aisle in the storeroom, then went home for dinner. Returning an hour later, he opened the storeroom door and stood frozen in shock. The room had been thoroughly straightened up. All the boxes were arranged in neat rows. Unpacked components were neatly sorted by type and manufacturer. Did Miguel come by? he thought, numbly. But he doesn’t have a key. Had someone broken in? But who would bother breaking in to—help?
5 Randall completed inventory of another aisle in the storeroom. On a sudden inspiration, he set up a few of the new security cameras around the store, and then left for the night.
6 Around midnight, Randall was awoken by an alert on his phone. There was movement inside the store! Fingers trembling, he opened the app to link to the video feed.
7 What he saw left him speechless. Small gnome-like creatures swarmed up the storeroom shelves. As the gnomes on the shelves called out model numbers, the ones standing below checked them off on their clipboards. Others checked off the contents of the opened boxes, and then repacked and reshelved the boxes.
8 As Randall stared in disbelief, the gnomes finished up. They streamed onto the table in the back and vaulted out through the open window. The last gnome stopped on the table, turned, and winked at the camera. Then, he too was gone.
9 Randall was dumbfounded. Who would believe he had been aided by creatures out of a fairy tale? And perhaps more importantly, what would people think of a security business that couldn’t prevent a break-in at its own site? Well, he didn’t have to tell anyone what he had seen.
10 Just then, his phone rang. “Hullo?” he said.
11 “Randall, it’s Carl from across the street. I just happened to be walking Maisie past your store when I saw a whole gang of burglars leaving by the back window. I called the police. Funny, I didn’t hear one of your fancy alarms go off.”
12 “Uh, yeah, Carl, no, the alarm works silently. Thanks for calling, though.” Randall sighed. Sometimes, he thought, the best help might be no help at all.
13 Randall returned to bed and was soon slumbering soundly. When the alarm on the phone chimed again, he was too deep asleep to be roused. As a result, he missed the surveillance camera footage showing the gnomes returning to stock his store’s display window with sneakers they had taken from Mr. Kavanaugh’s shoe emporium across the street. That surprise would have to wait until morning.
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Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm. “The Elves and the Shoemaker.” Translated by Margaret Hunt; 1884.


The following question has two parts. Answer Part A first, and then Part B.

Part A
Which answer choice best states the situational irony in Selection 2?
A. Creatures from a fairy tale try to help a modern store owner.
B. A store that sells security solutions has become disorganized.
C. Gnomes are more helpful to a store owner than his employees are.
D. The help a store owner wishes for turns out to be an embarrassment.
Part B
What is the most likely effect created by the situational irony identified in Part A?
A. Surprise; the reader expects that a security store would be well organized.
B. Humor; the reader expects that the gnome’s helpful actions would be welcome.
C. Surprise; the reader expects that gnomes would not be interested in helping humans.
D. Humor; the reader assumes that paid employees would work harder than fairy tale creatures.

Answer 1

Part A: D. The help Randall wanted turns into an embarrassment when the nighttime “helpers” are seen as burglars and make his security business look ineffective.

Part B: B. The situational irony produces humor: the reader expects that helpful assistance would be welcome, so the twist that the help is embarrassing is amusing.