Read this excerpt from The Wounded Soldier and answer the question that follows.



The low white tents of the hospital were grouped around an old school-house. There was here a singular chaos. In the foreground two ambulances interlocked wheels in the deep mud. The drivers were tossing the blame of it back and forth, gesticulating and yelling, while from the ambulances, both crammed with wounded, there came an occasional groan. An endless crowd of bandaged men were coming and going. Great numbers sat under the trees nursing heads or arms or legs. There was a dispute of some kind raging on the steps of the school- house. Sitting with his back against a tree a man with a face as grey as a new army blanket was serenely smoking a corn-cob pipe. The lieutenant wished to rush forward and inform him that he was dying.





Question: What effect does the phrase serenely smoking a corn-cob pipe have on the mood of this paragraph?

a
It amplifies the chaos of the hospital scene.
b
It creates a sense of calm within the chaos.
c
It anticipates the lieutenant’s wish to rush forward
d
It foreshadows the kind of life the lieutenant will have when he returns home from the front line.