Function of Character Change: Fiction/Drama Practice Test

In the following excerpt from an original drama, Captain Reyes interviews Niko, a young firefighter, after a warehouse blaze. Niko disobeyed orders to search for a rumored squatter and found no one, nearly trapping the crew. Read the passage and answer the question.

REYES: Sit.

NIKO: I’d rather stand.

REYES: That’s not a choice I’m offering.

NIKO: Yes, ma’am.

REYES: You went in after I called you back.

NIKO: I heard you.

REYES: Then why?

NIKO: Because there was a voice.

REYES: There was a rumor.

NIKO: I heard something.

REYES: You heard your own blood.

NIKO: I heard— (stops)

REYES: Finish the sentence.

NIKO: I heard my brother.

REYES: Your brother is not in that building.

NIKO: He was in a building once.

REYES: And you weren’t there.

NIKO: No.

REYES: So you keep trying to be there now.

NIKO: If I can pull one person out—

REYES: You can kill four.

NIKO: I can’t just leave.

REYES: You can, and you must.

NIKO: That’s not what we do.

REYES: It is exactly what we do. We do math with lives.

NIKO: I don’t.

REYES: You will.

NIKO: Or I quit.

REYES: You won’t.

NIKO: Watch me.

REYES: You think defiance makes you brave. It makes you predictable.

NIKO: And you think rules make you safe. They just make you able to sleep.

REYES: I sleep because my crew wakes up.

NIKO: (voice smaller) I didn’t mean—

REYES: Yes, you did.

NIKO: (after a beat) What happens now?

REYES: Now you learn to come back.

The bolded exchange chiefly serves to

In the following excerpt from an original drama, Dev (a young tech founder) and Rina (his cofounder) argue in their empty office after investors demanded layoffs. Dev wants to cut staff immediately; Rina wants to cut their own salaries first. Read the passage and answer the question.

DEV: If we don’t do it tonight, we lose the bridge round.

RINA: If we do it tonight, we lose them.

DEV: “Them” doesn’t keep the lights on.

RINA: Neither does fear.

DEV: It keeps people moving.

RINA: Toward what?

DEV: Survival.

RINA: That’s not a mission.

DEV: Mission is what you say when you’re funded.

RINA: Don’t pretend you never believed it.

DEV: I believed it when belief was cheap.

RINA: Belief was never cheap for me.

DEV: Because you like suffering. It makes you feel pure.

RINA: Because I remember names.

DEV: I remember numbers.

RINA: And you worship them.

DEV: I respect them.

RINA: You hide behind them.

DEV: I’m not hiding. I’m deciding.

RINA: Alone.

DEV: Someone has to.

RINA: We said we wouldn’t become that kind of company.

DEV: We said a lot.

RINA: We promised.

DEV: Promises don’t pay payroll.

RINA: We can cut ours.

DEV: That buys weeks.

RINA: Weeks are time.

DEV: Time for what? A miracle?

RINA: Time to act like humans.

DEV: Humans panic.

RINA: Humans also stay.

DEV: Not when you’re honest with them.

RINA: Then be honest.

DEV: Honest is telling them they’re expendable.

RINA: Honest is telling them you’re scared.

DEV: (silence) I’m not scared.

RINA: You just said you are.

DEV: I said—

RINA: You said it.

The bolded exchange primarily functions to