Question

Which statement best summarizes this excerpt from Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich?

And in imagination he began to recall the best moments of his pleasant life. But strange to say none of those best moments of his pleasant life now seemed at all what they had then seemed—none of them except the first recollections of childhood. There, in childhood, there had been something really pleasant with which it would be possible to live if it could return. But the child who had experienced that happiness existed no longer, it was like a reminiscence of somebody else.

Answer 1

Ivan Ilyich could recall pleasant days only in his childhood.

Step-by-step explanation:

From the given options:

* Ivan Ilyich couldn’t recall the days he spent as a child.

* Ivan Ilyich could recall pleasant days only in his childhood.

* Ivan Ilyich is thinking of someone’s pleasant childhood.

* Ivan Ilyich had a pleasant adult life but an unremarkable childhood.

Option B is the correct one since it uses the word ONLY and in the excerpt, he mentions that most of his memories are not as pleasant as they used to recall them or as they felt when he lived them, and he says "none of them EXCEPT the first recollections of childhood".

Answer 2

Without a doubd I can say that after reading this excerpt from Leo Tolstoy’s ''The Death of Ivan Ilyich'' it is clear for me that the statement that shows its summary in the best way is the last lines '‘there had been something really pleasant with which it would be possible to live if it could return. But the child who had experienced that happiness existed no longer, it was like a reminiscence of somebody else''