Which of the following most likely functions as the exposition in a story? We had been working for months to restore the house to its original glory.

Shannon grabbed for the lurching boat, only to miss and slip back into the raft.

"Thank you for the suggestion," she said grudgingly. "It saved our project."

"We can only imagine how difficult the contest will be at this point."

The option that would most likely function as the exposition in a story is:

A. We had been working for months to restore the house to its original glory.

Explanation:

The exposition of a story is the moment when the author sets the stage for what is going to happen. In other words, it functions as the introduction of the story, where we get to know the setting, the characters, and begin to understand the context in which the plot will unfold.

Therefore, the exposition should present information that will be developed, that is, introductory information. When we analyze the options given in the question, we can see that B, C, and D are more likely to be used in other moments in the story. They demand context. If they were the very first sentence in a story, for instance, we would be taken aback, having no idea what is going on. Why is Shannon trying to go from the raft to the boat? What project is she talking about - and who is she, for that matter? What contest is this and who is talking about it?

Now, option A sounds much more like an introduction. We do not know who the speaker is yet, but now we know that he/she and someone else have been working on renovating a house. It is easy to see that this piece of information will be further developed: we will be told who the speaker is, whose house it is, etc.