Part A Which inference can be drawn about Bilbo's character in The Hobbit?

He is stronger than he thought, and he wants to finish the quest without the untrustworthy dwarves.

He is quick thinking and clever, but still needs a lot of luck to survive the trials of the quest.

He struggles to keep the dwarves' attention, and he feels unappreciated by them.

His initial fears about his inability are true; he isn't a good choice for the quest.

Part b Which excerpts best support the answer in Part A?

Select the two correct answers.

"Fili and Kili, however, who were young (for dwarves) and had also been packed more neatly with plenty of straw into smaller casks, came out more or less smiling, with only a bruise or two and a stiffness that soon wore off.

"''I hope I never smell the smell of apples again!' said Fili. 'My tub was full of it. To smell apples everlastingly when you can scarcely move and are cold and sick with hunger is maddening. I could eat anything in the wide world now, for hours on end—but not an apple!'"

"Bilbo wondered what the dwarves were feeling and whether a lot of water was getting into their tubs. Some of those that bobbed along by him in the gloom seemed pretty low in the water, and he guessed that these had dwarves inside.

"'I do hope I put the lids on tight enough!' he thought."

"The washing-up was so dismally real that Bilbo was forced to believe the party of the night before had not been part of his bad dreams, as he had rather hoped. Indeed he was really relieved after all to think that they had all gone without him, and without bothering to wake him up ('but with never a thank-you' he thought); and yet in a way he could not help feeling just a trifle disappointed. The feeling surprised him."

"With the willing help of Fili and Kili, Thorin and Bilbo at last discovered the remainder of the company and got them out. Poor fat Bombur was asleep or senseless; Dori, Nori, Ori, Oin and Gloin were waterlogged and seemed only half alive; they all had to be carried one by one and laid helpless on the shore."