Question

Refer to Explorations in Literature for a complete version of this narrative. Read this excerpt from “The Final Assault” by Sir Edmund Hillary. Immediately I realized that we were on dangerous ground. On this very steep slope the snow was soft and deep with little coherence. My ice ax shaft sank into it without any support and we had no form of a belay.
Which statement best describes the author’s purpose in this excerpt?

to persuade readers to use caution when moving across deep snow
to amuse readers with an anecdote about danger
to give scientific facts about the behavior of ice
to provide information about the risk they were facing

Answer 1

The correct answer is to provide information about the risk they were facing. Just took the test

Answer 2

The correct answer is D.

In this excerpt of "The Final Assault" by Sir Edmund Hillary, the author is trying to provide information about the risk they were facing.

This is done by the deliverate usage of vocabulary. The author explicitly says that they were on "dangerous ground", explaining that the hill were they were walking was too soft and deep. Because of this, he had no way to tie himself to the ground, which means that if he were to make a wrong move, he would not be secured to anything and would fall.