Questions: Select the correct item in the passage. Which sentence best expresses the author's point of view that possessions can take over a home? excerpt from The Tyranny of Things by Elisabeth Woodbridge Morris Two fifteen-year-old girls stood eyeing one another on first acquaintance. Finally, one girl said, "Which do you like best, people or things?" The girl said, "Things." They were friends at once. I suppose we all go through a phase when we like things best, and not only like them, but want to possess them under our hand. The magpie instinct common to all children, "That's mine, I'll have that," persists in some people throughout life. We fill our rooms, our walls, our tables, our desks, with things, things, things. Many people never pass out of this phase. They never see a flower without wanting to pick it and put it in a vase; they never enjoy a book without wanting to own it, nor a picture without wanting to hang it on their walls. They keep photographs of all their friends and photograph albums of all their trips. Their houses are filled with an undigested mass of things, like terminal moraines, where a glacier dumps all the things it has picked up during its progress through the land.

The answer is: "Their houses are filled with an undigested mass of things, like terminal moraines, where a glacier dumps all the things it has picked up during its progress through the land."

Explanation:

1. "Two fifteen-year-old girls stood eyeing one another on first acquaintance. Finally, one girl said, 'Which do you like best, people or things?' The girl said, 'Things.' They were friends at once."

   • This sentence introduces the idea that some people prefer things over people, but it does not directly express the author's point of view about possessions taking over a home.

2. "I suppose we all go through a phase when we like things best, and not only like them, but want to possess them under our hand. The magpie instinct common to all children, 'That's mine, I'll have that,' persists in some people throughout life. We fill our rooms, our walls, our tables, our desks, with things, things, things."

   • This sentence discusses the tendency to accumulate possessions, but it does not explicitly state that these possessions take over a home.

3. "Many people never pass out of this phase. They never see a flower without wanting to pick it and put it in a vase; they never enjoy a book without wanting to own it, nor a picture without wanting to hang it on their walls. They keep photographs of all their friends and photograph albums of all their trips."

   • This sentence elaborates on the behavior of people who accumulate possessions, but it does not directly convey the idea of possessions taking over a home.

4. "Their houses are filled with an undigested mass of things, like terminal moraines, where a glacier dumps all the things it has picked up during its progress through the land."

   • This sentence best expresses the author's point of view that possessions can take over a home. The comparison to terminal moraines vividly illustrates how possessions accumulate and dominate the living space, much like debris left behind by a glacier.