Read these lines: "Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain t. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer. Oh come, now, you don t mean to let on that you like it? The brush continued to move. Like it? Well, I don t see why I oughtn t to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?" Why does the whitewasher answer carelessly?

1. A careless answer refuses to argue, which leaves the other boy nothing to push against. 2. The brush keeps moving through the whole exchange, so the work is being displayed rather than complained about. 3. The closing question treats a rare chance as the reason for liking it, which is an invitation dressed as a shrug. 4. All of that is aimed at the watcher, so option B states the purpose. 5. Option D fails because the answers are addressed straight to that boy. _Source: Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), public domain_