Sh il
pretest: unit 1
but all this - the mysterious, far-reaching hair-line trail, the
absence of sun from the sky, the tremendous cold, and the
strangeness and weirdness of it all made no impression
on the man. it was not because he was long used to it. he
was a new comer in the land, a chechaquo, and this was
his first winter. the trouble with him was that he was
without imagination. he was quick and alert in the things
of life, but only in the things, and not in the significances.
fifty degrees below zero meant eighty-odd degrees of
frost. such fact impressed him as being cold and
uncomfortable, and that was all. it did not lead him to
meditate upon his frailty as a creature of temperature, and
upon man's frailty in general, able only to live within certain
narrow limits of heat and cold, and from there on it did not
lead him to the conjectural field of immortality and man's
place in the universe. fifty degrees below zero stood for a
bite of frost that hurt and that must be guarded against by
the use of mittens, ear-flaps, warm moccasins, and thick
socks. fifty degrees below zero was to him just precisely
fifty degrees below zero. that there should be anything
more to it than that was a thought that never entered his
head. as he turned to go on, he spat speculatively. there
was a sharp, explosive crackle that started him. he spat
again.
what part of the plot is the author most likely developing in this portion of the
story?