The Pit: A Story of Chicago (Excerpt) Frank Norris A young woman, Laur 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 neighbourhoods 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 a In paragraph 3, why does the author choose to have Laura view the railway terminus? A. to illustrate the complexity of city life B. to illustrate the overcrowding of city neighborhoods C. to illustrate the difficulties of survival in the city D. to illustrate Laura's desire to leave the city