9. Which of the following best describes the diction of this excerpt from "And Of Clay Are We Created"? "Much later, after soldiers and volunteers had arrived to rescue the living and try to access the magnitude of the cataclysm, it was calculated that beneath the mud lay more than twenty thousand human beings and an indefinite number of animals putrefying in a viscous soup."

Question

9.  Which of the following best describes the diction of this excerpt from "And Of Clay Are We Created"?   "Much later, after soldiers and volunteers had arrived to rescue the living and try to access the magnitude of the cataclysm, it was calculated that beneath the mud lay more than twenty thousand human beings and an indefinite number of animals putrefying in a viscous soup."

(A) precise and formal 
(B) simple and casual 
(C) vivid and figurative 
(D) elevated and metaphorical

Writeacher · Answer

(Are you sure it's "access"? Should it be "assess"?)

Diction is referring to the author's choice of words. This passage is not D, but you'll need to decide which one it is -- formal? casual? vivid?

Let me know what you decide.