Read the excerpt from The Awakening, and look at the plot diagram.

“Do me a favor, Robert,” spoke the pretty woman at his side, almost as soon as she and Robert had started their slow, homeward way. She looked up in his face, leaning on his arm beneath the encircling shadow of the umbrella which he had lifted.

“Granted; as many as you like,” he returned, glancing down into her eyes that were full of thoughtfulness and some speculation.

“I only ask for one; let Mrs. Pontellier alone.”
Which best explains this excerpt’s purpose in the novel’s plot structure?
1.The excerpt provides a solution to the key problem as part of the resolution.
2. The excerpt is the point of greatest tension and acts as the climax.
3.The excerpt builds suspense and creates tension as part of the rising action.
4. The excerpt takes place after the climax as part of the falling action.