The Reward of Enterprise by Ward Muir

Question

It was overwhelming. Never in all my life have I attained to a rapture comparable with that bathe in mid-Atlantic. I knew, even at the time, that it would be unforgettable. I had aspired to be able to say that I had swum in water three miles deep . . . oh, never mind what vain boast I had promised myself. Boasting was forgotten. I was experiencing. I was surrendered to an ecstasy, an enchantment, a glee, beyond expression grandiose and delicious, I lolled in the pellucid water, not troubling to swim, I let myself go, in those dizzy soarings and sinkings I abandoned myself to this vast and beautiful force; I felt at once infinitely little and infinitely great.

Use the passage from "The Reward of Enterprise" to answer the question

How do the words rapture and ecstasy affect the tone of the story?

a. They indicate the narrator's uncertainty about his choice to go swimming
b. They provide a contrast that shows how the narrator's mood changes over time
c. They show that the narrator is experiencing great pleasure throughout the passage
d. They suggest the narrator's acceptance of the situation in which he finds himself

Answer 1

c. They show that the narrator is experiencing great pleasure throughout the passage