Texas High School ELA Question of the Day
Test your knowledge with a hand-picked multiple-choice question.
From the Office of Communal Wellness came the new policy, laminated in a cheerful sheen: students would henceforth earn Compassion Credits for every act of documented kindness. A hallway hug tallied half a point; a reported apology, a full point with a supervisor's countersignature. The morning announcements lauded last week's Top Ten Empaths, their names scrolling across classroom screens like a ticker for futures. Ms. Lively, whose job description had quietly absorbed 'Feelings Compliance,' distributed pastel wristbands equipped with a sensor to capture proximity-based benevolence. In Guidance, the counselor explained that the district had finally solved the problem of caring: a rubric, revised quarterly. A boy asked who owned the data of his forgiveness; another wondered if unreported kindness still existed, like a vanished dialect. The principal smiled, explaining that while the heart remained wonderfully mysterious, its outputs were now measurable for grant alignment. Teachers posted rubrics beside bathrooms and prayerful hygiene stations. Soon, the shy girl who wrote letters no one saw began to narrate her warmth loudly in the cafeteria line, eyes flicking to the band. By Friday, someone stood at the doorway with a tablet, rating the fervor of those who held it open, while the door itself drifted on its hinge, uncounted.
Which sophisticated literary device is primarily at work in the excerpt, and what complex purpose does it serve for readers?