Read the passage from Lord of the Flies by William Golding. He passed his tongue across dry lips and scanned the uncommunicative forest. Then again he stole forward and cast this way and that over the ground. The silence of the forest was more oppressive than the heat, and at this hour of the day there was not even the whine of insects. Only when Jack himself roused a gaudy bird from a primitive nest of sticks was the silence shattered and echoes set ringing by a harsh cry that seemed to come out of the abyss of ages. Jack himself shrank at this cry with a hiss of indrawn breath, and for a minute became less a hunter than a furtive thing, ape-like among the tangle of trees. Then the trail, the frustration, claimed him again and he searched the ground avidly. What is the universal theme of this passage?
Answer
A
the tension between truth and illusion
B
the conflict between an individual’s desires and the community’s needs
C
the relationship between violence and human nature
D
the relationship between civilization and nature
Explanation
The passage contrasts Jack’s human behavior with the wild forest around him. The bird’s harsh cry and the description of Jack as “ape-like” make him seem primitive and closely connected to nature. This supports the theme of the relationship between civilization and nature, rather than a conflict with community needs or a focus on truth and illusion.
AI-written and checked against the verified answer.