Read the first paragraph from o. henry’s story “the gift of the magi.” “one dollar and eighty-seven cents. that was all. and sixty cents of it was in pennies. pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one's cheeks burned with the silent *imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. three times della counted it. one dollar and eighty-seven cents. and the next day would be christmas.” [*imputation of parsimony: accusation of stinginess] why did the author use this paragraph to open his story? a. it produces tension that foreshadows later events in the story. b. it slows the pace of the story so events do not proceed too quickly. c. it creates a conversational tone, as if someone were telling the story aloud. d. it reveals important information about one of the story’s important characters.

Read this passage from “the fall of the house of usher.” which element of gothic literature is not obvious in this passage? as if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been found the potency of a spell, the huge antique panels to which the speaker pointed threw slowly back, upon the instant, their ponderous and ebony jaws. it was the work of the rushing gust—but then without those doors there did stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of the lady madeline of usher. there was blood upon her white robes, and the evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated frame. for a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon the threshold—then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final death agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the terrors he had anticipated. bleak or remote settings supernatural or otherworldly elements macabre or violent incidents strong language full of dangerous meaning