Question

Read the excerpt from Heart of a Samurai and then answer the question.

Eleven eyes. When at last he dared to look up, what he noticed was their eyes. Each pair a different color: green as a stormy sea, blue as the sky, black as night, or brown as his own. One man had only one eye, and that one as gray as a cloudy day. The other eye was covered with a patch.

There did not seem to be any tails, horns, or fangs among them. There were some alarmingly hairy faces and plenty of big noses, though!

Six big noses, in fact: one long and hooked, two long and straight, one squashed and wide, one turned up at the end, and another as big and red as a radish.
Based on this excerpt, what can readers infer about the stories the fishermen were told about the barbarians?

Answer 1

Answer: The readers can infer that the stories told about the barbarians were told in a way to make the barbarians sound terrifying and dangerous. The fishermen were, most likely, told about the barbarians in a way to make the fishermen fear them, as a sign to beware of them.

Explanation: The way the barbarians were described was terrifying, almost gruesome. The person describing the barbarians most likely was trying to warn them not to run in to them.