Question

select the passage that has a more distressed tone. day and night were indistinguishable in that ill - smelling cavern of the ships bowels where i lay, and the misery of my situation made time crawl. i longed to hear the ship split upon a rock or feel it reel headfirst into the depths of the sea. at last, sleep stole from me the consciousness of sorrow. i was aware that in the whaling business they paid no wages. however, all the sailors, including the captain, received certain shares of the profits, and these shares were paid in proportion to the type of duties performed. adapted from robert louis stevenson, kidnapped and herman melville, moby - dick

Explanation:

The first passage describes a miserable situation in the ship's bowels, longing for the ship's destruction, and losing sleep due to sorrow, which conveys a distressed tone. The second passage is about the wage - profit - sharing system in the whaling business and has a neutral tone.

Answer:

The first passage: Day and night were indistinguishable in that ill - smelling cavern of the ship's bowels where I lay, and the misery of my situation made time crawl. I longed to hear the ship split upon a rock or feel it reel headfirst into the depths of the sea. At last, sleep stole from me the consciousness of sorrow.