The Pit: A Story of Chicago (Excerpt) Frank Norris A young woman, Laura Dearborn, has just moved to Chicago, where she is invited to dinner by a young man. In the excerpt below, Laura describes her early impressions of the city. 1 Chicago, the great grey city, interested her at every instant and under every condition As yet she was not sure that she liked it; she could not forgive its dirty streets, the unspeakable squalor of some of its poorer neighbourhood.that sometimes developed, like cancerous growths, in the very heart of fine residence districts. The black murk that closed every vista of the business streets oppressed her, and the soot that stained linen and gloves each time she stirred abroad was a never-ending distress 2 But the life was tremendous. All around, on every side, in every direction the vast machinery of Commonwealth clashed and thundered from dawn to dark and from dark till dawn. Even now, as the car carried her farther into the business quarter, she could hear it. see it, and feel in her every fibre the trepidation of its motion. The blackened waters of the river, seen an instant between stanchions as the car trundled across the State Street bridge, disappeared under fleets of tugs, of lake steamers, of lumber barges from - In paragraph 6 the author personifies the city of Chicago How does this paragraph contribute to the overall meaning of the story? A. by explaining how the city is dynamic and ever-changing B. by implying that the city will mature with time, as humans do C. by revealing the city's illness, suggesting that it is getting weaker D. by suggesting that the city is impermanent and will soon cease to exist