Read the following stanzas and answer the question by choosing the correct options:
Six humans trapped by happenstance
In bleak and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the story's told.
Their dying fire in need of logs,
But the first one held hers back,
For, of the faces round the fire,
She noticed one was black.
The next man looking 'cross the way
Saw one not of his church,
And could not bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.
The woman does not put her log into the fire deliberately because of _____.
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → racial discrimination
The first person held back her stick because "of the faces round the fire, / She noticed one was black." She would rather let the fire die than share its warmth with a person of another race: an act of racial discrimination.
Why the Other Options are Incorrect?
Option 2: love and selflessness — Incorrect. Contradicted: holding back wood from a dying fire is a selfish act, the opposite of love and selflessness.
Option 3: humanity — Incorrect. Contradicted: humanity means kindness to other people; her act shows a lack of it.
Option 4: sitting with strange people — Incorrect. Wrong reason: all six were strangers caught in the cold together; she held back only because one face was black.