When i was 25 i got testicular cancer and nearly died. i was given less than a 40 percent chance of surviving, and frankly, some of my doctors were just being kind when they gave me those odds. death is not exactly cocktail-party conversation, i know, and neither is cancer, or brain surgery, or matters below the waist. but i’m not here to make polite conversation. i want to tell the truth. i’m sure you’d like to hear about how lance armstrong became a great american and an inspiration to us all, how he won the tour de france, the 2,290-mile road race that’s considered the single most grueling sporting event on the face of the earth. you want to hear about faith and mystery, and my miraculous comeback, and how i joined towering figures like greg lemond and miguel indurain in the record book. you want to hear about my lyrical climb through the alps and my heroic conquering of the pyrenees, and how it felt. but the tour was the least of the story.

source: armstrong, lance and sally jenkins. it’s not about the bike: my journey back to life. new york: putnam, 2000. 2-3. print.

which statement describes the author’s perspective and purpose in this excerpt?

a. the perspective is personal and serious-minded; the purpose is to inform.
b. the perspective is distant and matter-of-fact; the purpose is to entertain.
c. the perspective is irreverent; the purpose is to entertain and persuade.
d. the perspective is sarcastic and humorous; the purpose is to self-reflect.

roses are red,

violets are black,

for what you said,

i hope you sit on a big fat tack.

ugly things like bugs or something?

"character is what you are in the dark." dwight lyman moody, in this very witty quotation of his, states we act and think differently when we are "in the dark", that is, when the spotlight is not on us and everyone can see us and consequently judge us. when reading, we tend to be sympathetic to some characters and their dilemmas. by being so, we are saying to ourselves that we agree with those characters' acts and choices, even if they are morally questionable if we have common sense in mind. dwight lyman moody's quotation applies very well to "crime and punishment", by   19th century russian writer fiodor dostoyevsky. raskolnikov, the main character, a former law student who spends his days reflecting upon life and its misery, draws a fatal conclusion: mankind is divided in two main categories: ordinary and extraordinary people. the first are the ones who lead a run-of-the-mill existence and are full of imperfections; the latter are the ones who are spiritually superior, the ones who always know better, and have the right to judge the ordinary ones, as well as eliminate them if for common good. raskolnikov considers himself as belonging to the extraordinary category and decides to kill an old lady who is a money lender and in whose house he rents a small room. raskolnikov compares himself to napoleon, who had the undeniable right to execute tons of people during the war in order to save his nation. of course what the main character decides to do is a horrendous crime, but as readers we feel it is the right thing for him to do, since the victim is a mean old woman who only thinks about money and keeps humiliating her younger sister. what one experiences is a mixture of sympathy and empathy for the character, even though he decides to commit homicide, which is not at all accepted or tolerated by civilized citizens. however, since readers are "in the dark", they allow themselves to feel in ways they would probably never dare to confess to anyone, no matter how nasty or vicious a character can be. after all, they are just reading and doing no harm. in other words, readers are in the dark and can be who they are without being judged.