Question

the following selection is a european folktale.
adapted from \a chapter of fish\
by arthur ransome

sometimes in spring, when the big river flooded its banks and made lakes of
the meadows, and the little rivers flowed deep, old peter spent a few days
netting fish. also in summer he set night - lines in the little river not far from
where it left the forest. and so it happened that one day he sat in the warm
sunshine outside his hut, mending his nets and making floats for them; not
cork floats like ours, but little rolls of the silver bark of the birch tree.

and while he sat there vanya and maroosia watched him, and sometimes even
helped, holding a piece of the net between them, while old peter fastened on
the little glistening rolls of bark that were to keep it up in the water. and all the
time old peter worked, he told them stories about fish.

first he told them what happened when the first pike was born, and how it is
that all the little fish are not eaten by the great pike with his huge greedy
mouth and his sharp teeth.

on the night of ivanov’s day (that is the midsummer) there was born the pike,
a huge fish, with such teeth as never were. and when the pike was born the
waters of the river foamed and raged, so that the ships in the river were all but
swamped, and the young girls who were playing on the banks ran away as fast
as they could, frightened, they were, by the roaring of the waves, the wind
and the foam on the water. terrible was the birth of the sharp - toothed pike.

in paragraphs 7 - 19, how does the author structure the selection to build
tension?
a he provides a vivid description of how the pike fiercely devours
its prey.

b he includes many adjectives in the dialogue that refer to the
pike’s small size.

c he uses different fish to present futile ideas before a useful one
is presented.

d he introduces a conversation between the fish to show how
humans would solve the situation.

Explanation:

• Option A: Describing the pike devouring prey doesn't directly relate to building tension in paragraphs 7 - 19 (the story here is about the pike's birth and earlier fish stories, not its hunting for prey yet).
• Option B: The pike is described as huge, not small, so this is incorrect.
• Option C: Old Peter tells stories about fish, likely presenting some less useful or futile ideas about fish (like how little fish survive) before a more impactful or useful story (the pike's birth), which builds tension as the reader waits for the key story.
• Option D: There's no conversation between fish to show human solutions; the story is about Peter telling stories and the pike's birth.

Answer:

C. He uses different fish to present futile ideas before a useful one is presented.