Read the following short story, and then answer the questions that follow.
Lifeguard Rules!
1 Ira was sitting in the shade because it was over ninety degrees in the sun, which beat down with a fierce vengeance. He wished he was still playing around in the cool, blue water of the pool. He had been splashing in the shallow end until the shrill sound of the lifeguard’s whistle cut through the air like a siren.
2 “That’s it, Ira and Michael,” Francesca had said. "You guys don’t get a third warning. Go spend fifteen minutes out of the water. I’ll inform you when I’m ready to see you in the pool again.”
3 “Wow, your sister thinks she’s a prison guard instead of a lifeguard,” Michael said. “You’d think she’d go easy on her own brother and his best friend,” he added.
4 Ira was feeling conflicted. On the one hand, he felt like he should stick up for his sister. After all, Francesca had given him and Michael two warnings. The first time she had been friendly and brief. The second time she had called them over to the side of the pool and lectured them for a full minute. It was only when they resumed their splashing war and accidentally soaked Mr. Murphy, who was reading his newspaper in a beach chair, that Francesca had whistled them out of the pool.
5 Ira was thinking about what to say. He didn’t want to offend Michael, who was his best friend, and he himself argued with Francesca all the time, but in his heart he knew that she was doing her job and she had been correct to discipline Michael and him, especially after two warnings.
6 Before Ira spoke up, everyone’s attention shifted back to the swimming pool. Kendra, a girl in Ira’s class, and her little brother were laughing and shouting. They were having a splashing war much like the one that had gotten Ira and Michael ejected.
7 “Look,” Michael was quick to observe, “everyone is splashing each other, so why did Francesca have to pick on you?”
8 Before Michael finished the last syllable of his question, three—make that four—things happened at almost exactly the same time. First, Kendra sent a big spray of water at her brother. Second, as the water splashed over the pool deck, a young toddler who wasn’t paying attention stepped into the puddle, and her feet slipped out from under her.
9 Third and fourth, Francesca’s arm shot out like a lasso, encircling the young girl to keep her from falling. Then, with her other hand, Francesca lifted her whistle to her lips to signal Kendra, who was in for a stern lecture.
10 Ira no longer felt the need to say anything in Francesca’s defense. Michael suddenly got too interested in tying knots in the drawstring of his swimsuit to bother criticizing Francesca. The little girl’s mother came over to thank the lifeguard who never took her eyes off of the swimmers in the water.
Question
Use the passage to answer the question.
In "Lifeguard Rules!," how does the author mostly reveal the character of Ira?
(1 point)
Responses
through his words
through his words
through his actions
through his actions
through his thoughts
through his thoughts
through other peoples’ views of him
through other peoples’ views of him
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