Richie had felt a mad, exhilarating kind of energy growing in the room. . he thought he recognized the feeling from his childhood, when he felt it every day and had come to take it merely as a matter of course. he supposed that, if he had ever thought about that deep-running aquifer of energy as a kid (he could not recall that he ever had), he would have simply dismissed it as a fact of life, something that would always be there, like the color of his eyes . . well, that hadn't turned out to be true. the energy you drew on so extravagantly when you were a kid, the energy you thought would never exhaust itself—that slipped away somewhere between eighteen and twenty-four, to be replaced by something much duller . . purpose, maybe, or goals . . source: king, stephen. it. new york: penguin, 1987. print.

which word describes the tone in this excerpt best?

optimistic
nostalgic
ironic
romantic

The following excerpts that illustrate darl's and cash's points of view from william faulkner's as i lay dying: from darl: tull's wagon stands beside the spring, hitched to the rail, the reins wrapped about the seat stanchion. in the wagon bed are two chairs. jewel stops at the spring and takes the gourd from the willow branch and drinks. i pass him and mount the path, beginning to hear cash's saw. when i reach the top he has quit sawing. standing in a litter of chips, he is fitting two of the boards together. between the shadow spaces they are yellow as gold, like soft gold, bearing on their flanks in smooth undulations the marks of the adze blade: a good carpenter, cash is. he holds the two planks on the trestle, fitted along the edges in a quarter of the finished box. he kneels and squints along the edge of them, then he lowers them and takes up the adze. a good carpenter. addie bundren could not want a better one, better box to lie in. it will give her confidence and comfort. i go on to the house, followed by the chuck. chuck. chuck. of the adze. from cash: i made it on the bevel. there is more surface for the nails to grip. there is twice the gripping-surface to each seam. the water will have to seep into it on a slant. water moves easiest up and down or straight across. in a house people are upright two thirds of the time. so the seams and joints are made up-and-down. because the stress is up-and-down. in a bed where people lie down all the time, the joints and seams are made sideways, because the stress is sideways. except. a body is not square like a crosstie. animal magnetism. the animal magnetism of a dead body makes the stress come slanting, so the seams and joints of a coffin are made on a bevel. compare how the two narrators tell the story of addie bundren's impending death. is either narrator reliable? explain what the reader learns about each narrator. be sure to use specific details from the text to support your answer.