Read the following passage carefully:
The water in the lower vault had already reached the second tier of crates when Mallow arrived, his lantern casting long, shivering yellow teeth across the dark flood. He stood on the bottom stair, paralyzed by the arithmetic of ruin, silently calculating the loss of the indigo shipments. Each floating splinter of cedarwood represented another digit stripped from the firm’s quarterly ledger, an irreversible subtraction of his own security.
Behind him, Crain pushed past, his boots splashing heedlessly into the cold, knee-deep brine. Crain did not look at the stairs or the lantern; his hands were already tearing at the swollen lid of the nearest crate, his face lit by a sudden, almost erratic energy. "Hold the light closer, Mallow!" he barked, his fingers catching on a rusted nail as he hauled a sodden bolt of silk toward the dry landing. "We can still salvage the crimson weaves if we dry them on the rafters. The market doesn't care about a damp edge if the center holds."
Mallow did not move. He watched the black water swell around Crain’s knees, feeling only a profound disgust for this frantic, undignified struggle against the inevitable. To Mallow, the disaster was already recorded, its moral finalized; to wrestle with the water was merely to desecrate the corpse of their enterprise.
Which of the following best describes the primary function of the contrast between Crain’s active response to the flood and Mallow’s passive reaction?
- It emphasizes Mallow’s paralyzing dependence on order and predictability in the face of sudden crisis.Answer
- BIt demonstrates that Crain is a morally superior character who is more dedicated to the firm's financial survival.
- CIt recounts the physical tasks involved in retrieving ruined inventory from a flooded basement.
- DIt emphasizes the physical hazard of the flooded chamber as the primary obstacle to the clerks' duties.
- EIt exposes Crain's foolishness in attempting to salvage silk that has already been completely destroyed by the water.