Read this excerpt from "The Softening of Miss Cynthia" by Lucy Maud Montgomery. "I wonder if I'd better flavour this cake with lemon or vanilla. It's the most perplexing thing I
ever heard of in my life."
"Tuesday night," said Miss Cynthia. She had decided on the vanilla and was whipping it
briskly in. "I saw an express wagon drive into the yard with a boy and a trunk in it and I went
out just as he got down. 'Are you my Aunt Cynthia?' he said. "Who in the world are you?' I
asked. And he says, Tm Wilbur Merrivale, and my father was John Merrivale. He died three
weeks ago and he said I was to come to you, because you were his sister.'Well, you could
just have knocked me down with a feather!"
"I'm sure," said Mrs. John Joe. "But I didn't know you had a brother. And his name -
Merrivale?"
4. Which statement best describes the dialogue in this excerpt? (1 point)
It is effective, because Wilbur Merrivale's words match the emotion he would likely have following his father's death.
It is ineffective, because Miss Cynthia and Mrs. John Joe are speaking too slowly to match the action of the scene.
It is effective, because such phrases as "Who in the world are you," "you could just have knocked me down with a feather," and "wento
emotions and the way she really talks.
It is ineffective, because such phrases as "I wonder if I'd better flavour this cake with lemon or vanilla" and "I don't wonder you are mix
Cynthia and Mrs. John Joe are having a real conversation.