Assessment timer and count Assessment items Item 5 Read this excerpt from "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. And now a new anxiety seized me—the sound would be heard by a neighbor! The old man’s hour had come! How does this incident provoke the narrator's decision to murder the old man? A. The narrator is afraid someone will hear the old man's heartbeat, thwarting his chance to commit the murder.

B. The narrator needs to stop the old man's loud screaming, so he springs into action immediately.

C. The narrator has written in his diary the precise moment he wished to kill the old man, and that moment has finally arrived.

D. The narrator hates the old man's voice more than he hates the old man's glassy eye, and this pushes the narrator over the edge.