In this excerpt from the novel The Country of Pointed Firs, the unnamed narratora female writer-receives a visit from a retired sea captain. "I am an old man, as you can see." said Captain Littlepage."and I have been a shipmaster the greater part of my life. You may not think it, but I
am above eighty years of age."
"You must have left the sea many years ago," I said.
"I should have been serviceable at least five or six years more," he answered.
Now we were approaching dangerous ground, but I asked to hear more with all the deference I really felt.
"I had a valuable cargo of general merchandise from the London docks to Fort Churchill. a station of the old company on Hudson's Bay," said
the captain earnestly, we were delayed in loading and baffled by head winds and a heavy tumbling sea all the way north. Then the fog kept'us off
the coast and when I made port at last, it was too late to delay in those northern waters with such a vessel and such a crew as I had. They cared
for nothing and idled me into a fit of sickness: but my first mate was a good, excellent man, so we made what speed we could to get clear of
Hudson's Bay. I meant it to be my last voyage in her, and so it proved. She had been an excellent vessel in her day. Of the cowards aboard her!
Select All the correct answers.
Which two statements best express themes of the passage?
Travel enhances people's knowledge of the world.
When times are hard, the sea provides solace.
The older people grow, the wiser they become.
People should value experience more than they do.
Progress is a benefit to living in the modern age.