Read the following passage and answer the questions that follow. Doctor Pascal
by Emile Zola
In the heat of the glowing July afternoon, the room with blinds carefully closed, was full of a great calm. From the three windows,
cracks of the old wooden shutters, came only a few scattered sunbeams which, in the midst of the obscurity, made a soft brightne
bathed surrounding objects in a diffused and tender light. It was cool here in comparison with the overpowering heat that was fel
under the fierce rays of the sun that blazed upon the front of the house.
Standing before the press which faced the windows, Dr. Pascal was looking for a paper that he had come in search of. With doors
this immense press of carved oak, adorned with strong and handsome mountings of metal, dating from the last century, displaye
capacious depths an extraordinary collection of papers and manuscripts of all sorts, piled up in confusion and filling every shelf to
For more than thirty years the doctor had thrown into it every page he wrote, from brief notes to the complete texts of his great
heredity. Thus it was that his searches here were not always easy. He rummaged patiently among the papers, and when he at las
one he was looking for, he smiled.
For an instant longer he remained near the bookcase, reading the note by a golden sunbeam that came to him from the middle
himself, in this dawnlike light, appeared, with his snow-white hair and beard, strong and vigorous; although he was near Sixty, his
fresh, his features were so finely cut, his eyes were still so clear, and he had so youthful an air that one might have taken him, in
fitting, maroon velvet jacket, for a young man with powdered hair,
Which of these is the purpose of the first paragraph? (5 points)
Oa
To set the mood for the scene that follows
Ob
To describe the characters