Read the following passage: All night, they had walked silently. The mules were
flagging. The wind blew hard. Their stomachs, empty since
yesterday, no longer made noise. The girl walked numbly
on, as in a trance. She could no longer feel the earth
beneath her feet.
Why would the author most likely include this passage at the beginning of a
story?
O A. To give the reader a sense of the events to come
B. To draw parallels between the story and others of its genre
C. To provide a detailed description of a main character
D. To interest the reader in discovering more about the situation