It can be reasonably inferred from the middle of
the story that...

A) helen stoner is primarily interested in getting her stepfathers money.
B) helen stoner understands that her stepfather is capable of evil acts
C) sherlock holmes is skeptical that helen stoned is telling the truth
D) sherlock holmes believes watson will be able to help helen stoner.

B) Helen Stoner understands that her stepfather is capable of evil acts.

Explanation:

The story of The Speckled Band from the Sherlock Holmes series by Arthur Conan Doyle revolves around the death of a young girl Ju lia Stoner. Her twin sister Helen Stoner had asked for Sherlock Holmes' help in figuring out the reason for her sister's mysterious death.

As the story began, Helen had come to Mr. Holmes' home to tell them about her suspicions and help her. She also reveals her step-father's bad temper and the circumstances of Ju lia's death, which tragically is just some days before her wedding. And now that her own wedding is approaching, and made to sleep in her dead sister's room, she fears something will happen to her too. By the middle of the story, we can know that Helen has realized that her step-father is capable of doing evil deeds, even killing a person.

Thus, the correct answer is option B.

word count 168

serve the people! ,” smoothly translated by julia lovell, offers an initial sample of yan lianke’s writing to an english-speaking audience. a bluntly drawn, mildly erotic fable, it teases mao zedong by poking fun at a true believer who obeys the chairman’s precepts too literally. to a western sensibility, the broad strokes of yan lianke’s humor would seem to pose little risk of inciting rebellion, whether of the flesh or of the body politic. but then, part of the book’s attraction is that it doesn’t have a western sensibility. it lets the reader see — or rather, intuit — what jokes chinese officials don’t consider funny, and how very little it takes for a writer to be branded an incendiary in 21st-century china, more than three decades after the death of mao, a decade after the death of deng xiaoping and seven years since china entered the world trade organization, a move that would seem to signal a willingness (however wary) to mingle with the rest of the world.