Question

view passage 1
this passage is from the short story \second variety\ by philip k. dick. the story takes place after a nuclear war has turned the world into a wasteland.

the boy fell in beside him. hendricks strode along. the boy walked silently, clutching his teddy bear.

\whats your name?\ hendricks said, after a time.

\david edward derring.\

\david? what—what happened to your mother and father?\

\they died.\

\how?\

\in the blast.\

\how long ago?\

\six years.\

hendricks slowed down. \youve been alone six years?\

o. there were other people for awhile. they went...

mark to review later question 7/25
which sentence from the passage best expresses the tone and theme of the passage?
○ \custom, habit, and all the determining forces of learning were gone; only brute experience remained.\
○ \on they went, the two of them, hendricks walking a little ahead.\
○ \but that was the way they were, the children who survived.\
○ \the boy was strange, saying very little.\

Explanation:

To determine the sentence that best expresses the tone and theme, we analyze each option:

• Option 1: Talks about loss of social constructs, but the passage focuses on survival and the boy's experience.
• Option 2: Describes their movement, not tone/theme.
• Option 3: "the children who survived" connects to the post - nuclear war wasteland setting (from the passage's intro) and the boy's survival (losing parents, being alone), capturing the theme of survival and the tone of resilience/harsh reality.
• Option 4: Describes the boy's behavior, not the overall tone/theme.

Answer:

C. "But that was the way they were, the children who survived."