AP English Literature and Composition 1.7 Passage Drill 7

Really, this boils down to nothing more than a vocab question.

If we read the lines in question, we see that the change in the will took place because

Ralph had a fit of "exasperation" and felt "indignation."

Maybe the same feelings you experienced when we asked you to review this passage for the umpteenth time.

If we know the meaning of these words, this question is a breeze. If we don't, we'll have

to make use of context clues.

Let's take a gander at this portion of the passage:

"On examination, however, they turned out to be strictly correct. The amiable old gentleman,

it seemed, had intended to leave the whole to the Royal Humane Society, and had indeed

executed a will to that effect; but the Institution, having been unfortunate enough, a few months

before, to save the life of a poor relation to whom he paid a weekly allowance of three

shillings and sixpence, he had, in a fit of very natural exasperation, revoked the bequest

in a codicil, and left it all to Mr Godfrey Nickleby; with a special mention of his indignation,

not only against the society for saving the poor relation's life, but against the poor

relation also, for allowing himself to be saved."

Okay, so Ralph was going to leave everything to the Royal Humane Society, until they royally

fouled up by saving the life of one of his poor relatives to whom he owes an allowance.

We'll call him... selectively generous.

Yes. That's a nice way of putting it.

Anyway, we can glean that he must have changed his mind because the actions of the Society

made him upset, angry, irritated.

Any of those work. They all mean roughly "exasperated" or "indignant."

If we scan the potential answers, we can see that option C clearly makes the most sense.

Ah, "making sense." A concept Ralph Nickleby apparently knows nothing about.