Information text: Autobiography
Read the passage, and answer the question(s).
(1) Even before I started performing in musical comedies, I learned how music and laughter could mix. When I was a boy, for example, I sang for years in the school chorus. We were young, but performances were a serious business for us. We tried to conduct ourselves with great, solemn purpose.
(2) Bette Ann was our star soprano. The rest of us were serious, but Bette Ann was as stern and dignified as the statue on top of a building. That's what made it so hard for us when the spider came to our show.
(3) It was the final performance before school let out for the year. Bette Ann was in the middle of her big solo. She climbed from one high note to the next, and as usual, the audience was rapt, listening in an appreciative trance. We chorus members sat onstage behind her, quiet and still.
(4) That spider must have been a music lover, too. Jeremy was the first to notice him as he descended on his silken thread, one inch at a time, from the auditorium ceiling. Jeremy nudged me, and made a small pointing gesture. From where we sat, the spider was well lit, silhouetted by a spotlight. His progress was easy to track, and we watched his descent in silent awe.
(5) It soon became clear what the spider's target was. As Bette Ann's voice reached even higher, that spider descended even lower, headed straight for the top of her head. Amid the music, I could almost hear a Mission Control–style countdown: "T minus 10 seconds to impact, T minus 9, T minus 8. . . ."
(6) As our performance headed straight for disaster, I remember wondering whether the shriek Bette Anne was about to give would be even higher than her high C.
(7) The episode is certainly funny enough to be memorable for itself. I also take the memory out from time to time, though, as an antidote for jitters before a performance. After all, I think to myself, the thing that's likeliest to trip me up is the thing I least expect—a little spider hanging from the ceiling, perhaps. So why worry? Either the spider finds me—or I hit that high C after all!
Which of the following is an example of a technique the writer uses to achieve one of the purposes of the passage?
A. The writer entertains by introducing something inappropriate, the spider, in a serious scene.
B. The writer informs by using technical terms such as "musical comedies" and "high C."
C. The writer persuades by appealing to readers' emotions, such as their sympathy for Bette Ann.
D. The writer informs by giving a detailed explanation of the events that led him to become a singer.
