Read the following passage:
For twenty years, Gabriel had judged the worth of a volume solely by the precision of its casing. As a master bookbinder, his fingers knew the exact tension of silk thread and the cold gleam of gold leaf. To him, an unread classic in crushed morocco leather was a monument of human achievement, while a dog-eared pamphlet was a vulgar intrusion. Yet, as he repaired the split spine of a battered, stained ledger belonging to the late village weaver—a book of rough, gray paper filled with ink-smudged descriptions of neighborly kindness during the fever winter—he found himself pausing. He did not reach for his bone folder to smooth the creased margins. Instead, he sat under the dim gaslight, reading page after page, his polished tools lying forgotten on the workbench. When he finally closed the book, he did not see a ruined artifact; he felt the weight of a living voice.
Which of the following best describes the change in Gabriel's values as revealed by his reaction to the weaver's ledger?
- AHe resolves his internal conflict by deciding to write his own accounts of the village's working-class struggles.
- BHe changes from an amateur craftsman struggling with his tools to a master bookbinder who respects historical artifacts.
- He transitions from valuing books primarily as objects of material craftsmanship to appreciating their role as vessels of shared human experience.Answer
- DHe adopts the weaver's explicit message to abandon his trade and condemn the wealthy collectors who purchase his work.