Read the excerpt from The War of the Worlds, in which the narrator describes the first sighting of one of
the Martians.
Those who have never seen a living Martian can scarcely imagine the strange horror of its appearance.
The peculiar V-shaped mouth with its pointed upper lip, the absence of brow ridges, the absence of a chin
beneath the wedgelike lower lip, the incessant quivering of this mouth, the Gorgon groups of tentacles,
the tumultuous breathing of the lungs in a strange atmosphere, the evident heaviness and painfulness of
movement due to the greater gravitational energy of the earth-above all, the extraordinary intensity of
the immense eyes-were at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous. There was something
fungoid in the oily brown skin, something in the clumsy deliberation of the tedious movements
unspeakably nasty. Even at this first encounter, this first glimpse, I was overcome with disgust and dread.
Which TWO options accurately analyze the purpose of this lengthy description?
The detailed description shows the striking similarities between humans and Martians.
The detailed description characterizes the narrator as a trustworthy source of information about the Martians.
The detailed description increases suspense because the narrator's dread implies something bad is going to happen.
The detailed description justifies the horror the narrator feels from this experience.