PART A: Which statement best describes how the banker’s actions develop the theme of the story?
Question 7 options:
A). The banker’s hasty and thoughtless actions lead to trouble and despair for him.
B). The banker’s disregard for human life shows the extent of his lack of compassion for others.
C). The banker’s adventurous spirit prompts him to create dangerous or risky situations.
D). The banker’s passionate defense of his views gets him into dangerous situations. The banker’s passionate defense of his views gets him into dangerous situations.
PART B: Which TWO details from the text best support the answer to Part A?
Question 8 options:
A). “‘Capital punishment kills a man at once, but lifelong imprisonment kills him slowly. Which executioner is the more humane, he who kills you in a few minutes or he who drags the life out of you in the course of many years?’” (Paragraph 1)
B). “‘Think better of it, young man, while there is still time. To me two million is a trifle, but you are losing three or four of the best years of your life. I say three or four, because you won’t stay longer.’” (Paragraph 11)
C). “Desperate gambling on the Stock Exchange, wild speculation and the excitability which he could not get over even in advancing years, had by degrees led to the decline of his fortune and the proud, fearless, self-confident millionaire had become a banker of middling rank, trembling at every rise and fall in his investments.” (Paragraph 22)
D). “‘he is asleep and most likely dreaming of the millions. And I have only to take this half-dead man, throw him on the bed, stifle him a little with the pillow, and the most conscientious expert would find no sign of a violent death.’” (Paragraph 30)
E). “To avoid arousing unnecessary talk, he took from the table the writing in which the millions were renounced, and when he got home locked it up in the fireproof safe.” (Paragraph 39)
