Question

urge to fail and fail again by david duchovny r, west, just texted me and asked what i thought g a tattoo—tasteful and small, monochrome, . . . —of tt epigram from worstward ho: \fail again. fail ngs me to tears. that she would ask—she’s 21; she leases, but she also knows that i know she knows the ne. it’s between us. she knows i wrote my senior ton 1,000 years ago on beckett’s novels. . . . es know that i’m half in love with failure, a kind of failure, and that even at a young age that must have eckett, as it later drew me to acting, and writing, and ors in which perfection is an impossible target. i’ve ne mistakes. the energy created by hamartia, the near kling freedom and electricity when you forget your e is to fail. and to fail is to fall. and to fall is to be we fall, we reach out our hands to all of humanity. . . . r my daughter and my son because i have this that when i am gone, if my kids could pulp my novels, of mulch of them—much as i imagine researchers do to dna of pulverized ancient dinosaur fossils—they could from the pulpy mulch. that my kids, if they ran that the lab, could see me there clearly: the footprint, the bad/david. the mysterious, spiraled math of my heart hid part of itself from the light and casually spoken maybe this will free them of something. these books are lking once i’m dead, of speaking truth to the future. g of my kids and what is nameable and unnameable generations makes me think of my parents. . . . 4 williams, jadon what is the purpose of paragraph 1 in the passage? a to establish the author’s age b to introduce the author’s daughter c to establish the author’s passion for the topic d to introduce the author’s academic qualifications

Explanation:

• Option A: The first paragraph doesn't focus on establishing the author's age; it mentions the daughter's age (21) but not the author's. Eliminate A.
• Option B: While the daughter is mentioned, the main purpose isn't just to introduce her. The focus is on the epigram and the author's connection to failure, which relates to the topic. Eliminate B.
• Option C: The first paragraph introduces the daughter's question about a tattoo with a Beckett epigram ("Fail again. Fail better"), and the author's emotional response. This ties to the author's "urge to fail and fail again" (the topic) and shows their passion for it (being moved to tears, connection to Beckett). This fits.
• Option D: The paragraph mentions a senior thesis on Beckett, but it's a minor detail, not to introduce academic qualifications. Eliminate D.

Answer:

C. to establish the author’s passion for the topic