Read the excerpt from "Rosa” by Rita Dove. Doing nothing was the doing: the clean flame of her gaze carved by a camera flash. How she stood up when they bent down to retrieve her purse. That courtesy. How do the short sentences and the punctuation affect the tone of the excerpt?

The short, fragmentary sentences isolate details of Rosa’s actions, especially her steady gaze and courteous manner. The pauses created by the punctuation make these details feel deliberate and worthy of attention. Together, they convey the speaker’s admiration for Rosa, so B is correct.

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