North Carolina EOC English II Practice Questions - North Carolina End-of-Course English II Test Exam

Read the following passage. Jorge set the broken kettle on the counter and ran his thumb along the cracked seam. His grandmother had used this same kettle every morning for forty years, and the bottom was thin as paper from all the mornings she had trusted it to hold the heat. 'Throw it out,' his uncle said from the doorway, already late for work. 'A new one costs less than the solder.' Jorge did not answer. He was thinking of the way his grandmother had tapped the side each morning before pouring, as if asking the kettle whether it was ready. He found the roll of solder in the third drawer, the one that stuck, the one she had labeled with a piece of tape in her careful hand: for fixing what matters. Which line from the passage most strongly supports the idea that Jorge repairs the kettle out of reverence for his grandmother?