Read the following passage:
"Silas insisted that the restoration of the orchard was a charity, a gift to the village that had suffered so under the dry summer. He spoke of the saplings as if they were his own children, shielding them from the harsh north wind with screens of woven willow. In his journal, he recorded the daily growth of each bud with a meticulousness that bordered on devotion. To read his accounts, one would believe the entire enterprise was born of pure benevolence.
Yet, when Evelyn walked the perimeter of the low stone wall, she saw only the shadow of Silas’s ledger. The orchard did not face the village common; it bordered the eastern road, the very path the railway syndicate had surveyed for their new line. Each tree planted was a barrier, a deliberate obstruction designed to inflate the value of the land Silas owned behind it. Evelyn noted in her letter to the parish council that Silas had not offered a single basket of fruit from the old trees to the villagers, but had instead let them rot in the high grass to discourage gatherers. The benevolence Silas spoke of was a screen far thicker than the willow he wove to protect his investments."
In the passage, the contrast between Silas's recorded accounts of the orchard and Evelyn's observations primarily serves to do which of the following?
- AValidate Silas's claim of charity by showing that Evelyn's suspicions are unfounded and based on her own lack of agricultural knowledge.
- BConvey the author's personal endorsement of Silas's financial foresight over the village's short-sighted reliance on charity.
- Underline the discrepancy between Silas's self-proclaimed motives and his actual economic interests, thereby challenging the reliability of his perspective.Answer
- DProvide a detailed chronicle of how Silas planted the saplings and how the villagers reacted to the rotting fruit.
- ECast Evelyn as a foil whose primary purpose is to emphasize Silas's superior generosity and civic duty.