Passage
The workshop was a cavern of ticking gears, a thousand brass hearts beating in asynchronous discord. Master Jean-Pierre held the gold-cased chronometer to his eye, his loupe magnifying a tear-shaped droplet of solder on the escapement wheel—a microscopic blemish that would delay the watch by perhaps a single second over the course of a year. "It must be dismantled," he murmured, his voice carrying the solemnity of a priest. "The Duke’s lineage is recorded in seconds, Luc. We cannot sell him a lie."
Luc, leaning against the counter with a pocketful of cheap copper springs, sighed and tapped his boot. "The Duke will not live a year, Master, and his eyes are too dim to see a second slip away. A drop of oil on the pivot will quiet the drag, and we shall have our twenty sovereigns by nightfall. The rent is due tomorrow, not in a year's time. Why tear down the cathedral for a chipped stone at the altar?"
Jean-Pierre did not look up. He picked up his finest tweezers, his fingers steady despite the tremor of age. "A clockmaker does not patch the temple, Luc. He honors the architect."
Luc shook his head, pockets jingling as he turned toward the door. "The architect died when the coin became debased. I prefer to buy my bread today."
Which of the following best describes the function of Luc’s attitude toward the repair of the clockwork mechanism as a foil to Master Jean-Pierre’s values?
- Aframing the conflict as a simple moral fable in which Luc's dishonesty is pitted against Jean-Pierre's purity
- Bsummarizing the argument between the two watchmakers regarding the rent money and the sovereigns
- underscoring the uncompromising nature of Jean-Pierre's devotion to craftsmanship by contrasting it with Luc's pragmatic focus on immediate survivalAnswer
- Dillustrating Luc’s personal resentment toward the Duke’s wealth and social standing
- Eemphasizing how the noisy, cluttered environment of the workshop directly causes the characters' physical and mental exhaustion