What is the author's purpose for including the end of paragraph 3?
O A. to portray how deep the mud pits were
O B. to show that impassable roads were common
O C. to emphasize the good nature of the residents
O D. to introduce some levity into a serious situation

quite an interesting way to teach topic sentences, because the answer to this question is the best definition of a topic sentence that one can present, it is as if answering the questions taught you how to do it, this is some real teaching, it is terribly well-done.

the topic sentence in this paragraph is:

topic sentences writers stay on track and keep a paragraph from becoming an aimless collection of sentences about an idea.

which incidentally tells you what a topic sentence should be.