3. Read the following excerpt describing the Valley of Ashes: About half way between West Egg and New York the motor-road hastily joins the railroad and runs beside
it for a quarter of a mile so as to shrink away from a certain desolate area of land. This is a valley of
ashes-a fantastic farm where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens, where
ashes take the forms of houses and chimneys and rising smoke and finally, with a transcendent effort, of
men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air. Occasionally a line of grey cars
crawls along an invisible track, gives out a ghastly creak and comes to rest, and immediately the ash-grey
men swarm up with leaden spades and stir up an impenetrable cloud which screens their obscure
operations from your sight. But above the grey land and the spasm of bleak dust which drift endlessly
over it, you perceive, after a moment, the eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg. The eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg
are blue and gigantic-their retinas are one yard high .. his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days
under sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground. The valley of ashes is bounded on one
side by a small foul river, and when the drawbridge is up to let barges through, the passenger on waiting
trains can stare at the dismal scene for as long as half an hour. There is always a halt there of at least a
minute and it was because of this that I first met Tom Buchanan's mistress.
Which of the following BEST describes the mood of this excerpt?
a. Serious and somber
b. Frightening and mysterious
c. Dreary and depressing
d. Transcendent and obscure