Nhận biết (M1)

The following text is from Halvard Reim’s 1931 novel The Long Ascent.

What we mean to set down here concerning Emil Barrow—and we set it down not on his account (any reader will soon enough take him for the plain, agreeable young man he is) but on account of the thing itself, which strikes us as amply deserving to be set down (though it should be said for Barrow that the thing is his, and that not every man is handed such a thing to carry)—belongs to an age well behind us, has acquired, one might say, the dull sheen that time lays over what it keeps, and asks of necessity to be put in the tenses reserved for the remotest past.

What does the text most strongly suggest about the story of Emil Barrow?

• A.

  Although any life, however dull its owner, makes an interesting story because no two people are alike, the passage of time makes it hard to see just where this story’s interest lies.

• B.

  That the story concerns a person of no special consequence matters less than its age and the manner of telling it therefore requires, both of which mark the story out as important.

• C.

  An unremarkable person has had a remarkable thing happen to him, though a case could be made that some of what makes the story valuable rubs off on the man at its center.

• D.

  As with every story about a life of no consequence, this one has to be told in a certain manner if the audience is to see why it matters at all.