Read these lines: "As I writhed under it, I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy. It opened my eyes to the horrible pit, but to no ladder upon which to get out." The image of a pit without a ladder shows that reading had

1. The image has two halves, and both matter. 2. The pit is opened to his eyes, so reading has made him see where he stands. 3. There is no ladder, so seeing brings no means of climbing out. 4. Sight without escape is why he can call reading a curse rather than a blessing. 5. That is option C exactly. 6. Option A reverses the first half, since the pit is what he now cannot stop seeing. 7. Option B supplies a ladder he is too afraid to climb, but the quoted lines say there is no ladder at all. _Source: Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), public domain_