Read the first three sentences of the passage. There is one faculty which a pilot must incessantly cultivate until he has brought it to absolute perfection. Nothing short of perfection will do. That faculty is memory. Which word from the sentences best creates a lofty, or intellectually superior, tone?

The words that creates a lofty, or intellectually superior, tone is cultivate.

Explanation:

"Cultivate" is not commonly used in English in its original meaning, which would be the action of preparing and using the soil for gardening and growing crops. When "cultivate" is used, it is usually in more intellectual, formal texts, with the meaning of pursuing, acquiring, or developing a certain characteristic. That is the case in this excerpt by Mark Twain. The tone becomes more lofty, superior, by the use of this cultured word. He could very well have said, "one faculty which a pilot must incessantly work hard at", or "one faculty which a pilot must incessantly pursue", but he chose "cultivate" for the lofty tone it conveys.

chapter i -- paris: september, 1792

a surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate.

during the greater part of the day the guillotine had been kept busy at its ghastly work: all that france had boasted of in the past centuries, of ancient names, and blue blood, had paid toll to her desire for liberty and for fraternity.

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