Excerpt from The Necklace p2 [1] “I have—I have—I’ve lost Madame Forestier’s necklace,” she cried.
[2] He stood up, bewildered.
[3] “What!—how? Impossible!”
[4] They looked among the folds of her skirt, of her cloak, in her pockets, everywhere, but did not find it. . . .
[5] Her husband returned about seven o’clock. He had found nothing.
[6] He went to police headquarters, to the newspaper offices to offer a reward; he went to the cab companies—everywhere, in fact, whither he was urged by the least spark of hope.
[7] She waited all day, in the same condition of mad fear before this terrible calamity1.
[8] Loisel returned at night with a hollow, pale face. He had discovered nothing. . . .
[9] At the end of a week they had lost all hope. Loisel, who had aged five years, declared:
[10] “We must consider how to replace that ornament.”
[11] Then they went from jeweler to jeweler, searching for a necklace like the other, trying to recall it, both sick with chagrin2 and grief.
[12] They found, in a shop at the Palais Royal, a string of diamonds that seemed to them exactly like the one they had lost. It was worth forty thousand francs3. They could have it for thirty-six. . .
[13] Loisel possessed eighteen thousand francs which his father had left him. He would borrow the rest. . . .
[14] Thereafter Madame Loisel knew the horrible existence of the needy. She bore her part, however, with sudden heroism. That dreadful debt must be paid. She would pay it. They dismissed their servant; they changed their lodgings; they rented a garret4 under the roof.
[15] She came to know what heavy housework meant and the odious5 cares of the kitchen. She washed the dishes, using her dainty fingers and rosy nails on greasy pots and pans. She washed the soiled linen, the shirts and the dishcloths, which she dried upon a line; she carried the slops down to the street every morning and carried up the water, stopping for breath at every landing. And dressed like a woman of the people, she went to the fruiterer, the grocer, the butcher, a basket on her arm, bargaining, meeting with impertinence6, defending her miserable money, sou by sou. . . .
[16] This life lasted ten years.
Which is the best summary of paragraphs 1-16?
A.
Madame Loisel loses her friend’s diamond necklace, and her husband goes all over the city to try to find it. Finally, they decide to buy a new necklace to replace the lost one. The new one is expensive. The couple pays half the amount in cash and saves money to pay off the rest.
B.
Madame Loisel and her husband buy an expensive necklace for a friend. Madame Loisel lost her friend’s necklace and now she needs to replace it. Even though Madame Loisel and her husband searched everywhere for the lost necklace, they never found it.
C.
After Madame Loisel loses her friend’s diamond necklace, she and her husband buy a new one to replace it. The new necklace is very expensive, and Madame Loisel and her husband go into poverty to pay off the debt to the jeweler, which takes them ten long years.
D.
Madame Loisel is careless and loses her friend’s diamond necklace. She and her husband buy a new, expensive necklace to replace it. The couple spend the next ten years paying off the debt they owe for the new necklace. Madame Loisel deserves this punishment for being so careless.