Read the introduction from "The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County."

In compliance with the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the East, I called on good-natured, garrulous old Simon Wheeler, and inquired after my friend's friend, Leonidas W. Smiley, as requested to do, and I hereunto append the result. I have a lurking suspicion that Leonidas W. Smiley is a myth; that my friend never knew such a personage; and that he only conjectured that if I asked old Wheeler about him, it would remind him of his infamous Jim Smiley, and he would go to work and bore me to death with some exasperating reminiscence of him as long and as tedious as it should be useless to me. If that was the design, it succeeded.

Part A

What does the phrase "bore me to death" suggest?

Question 2 options:

A. By meeting with Wheeler, the narrator's life may be in danger.


B. In requesting he visit with Wheeler, the narrator's friend wishes him harm.


C. Conversations with Wheeler can be dull and uninformative.


D. Wheeler's memory is failing and unreliable.

Part B

How does the phrase "bore me to death" affect the story? (see previous question)

Question 3 options:

A. by foreshadowing the story's tragic ending


B. by creating a tone of hopelessness


C. by using exaggeration to create humor


D. by highlighting the narrator's impatience