Read the following passage carefully:
The specimen glass was cold, but Dr. Kenneth Vance held it with the practiced, unfeeling precision of a man who had spent forty years cataloging the flora of the high steppes. Through the double-lens magnifier, the delicate cilia of the *Dryas octopetala* appeared as rigid as iron spikes. Outside the conservatory's leaded panes, the fog from the estuary was beginning to swallow the lower terraces of the estate, erasing the boxwood hedges and the gravel paths that he had laid out with geometric exactitude. Vance did not look up; he had no need to see the fog to know its progress. He knew, by the creeping chill at his ankles, exactly which pane in the west wall had lost its putty. He recorded the width of a sepal in his ledger: 2.4 millimeters. It was a comfort, this microscopic certainty, especially now when the house behind him was filled with the soft, erratic rustle of his daughter’s packing trunks. He convinced himself that the sound was merely the wind teasing the loose weatherstripping of the library door, a mechanical problem with a simple physical solution.
Which of the following best describes the function of the narrative point of view in the passage?
- AIt employs an omniscient perspective to contrast Vance's cold scientific detachment with his daughter's unspoken grief over leaving her home.
- BIt establishes a detached, objective perspective that confirms Vance’s assessment of the house's structural drafts and mechanical sounds.
- It limits the reader's focus to Vance's obsessive cataloging of minute physical details, revealing the defensive nature of his preoccupation as he avoids the emotional reality of his daughter's departure.Answer
- DIt conveys the author's direct criticism of scientific inquiry by showing how botanical study hinders a parent's capacity for empathy.
- EIt outlines the sequence of Vance's measurements to show how a character's internal family conflict can be resolved through physical labor.