Which pair of lines from the passage contains a change in rhythm? like whooping cough, from child to child, / he sped to spread the rumor wild: "sure as my name is jabez dawes / there isn't any santa claus! " whispering low to every tot, / "there isn't any, no there's not! " the children wept all christmas eve / and jabez chortled up his sleeve.

The best answer here is choice C. With rhythm, you want to look not only at rhyme, but also the meter (or beats) within a line of poetry. Looking at each of the lines you have above, they all rhyme appropriately, so we need to look at the meter within the lines.

When looking at the meter, we need to specifically look at how the syllables in the line play out. If you look at the first answer choice, if you count the syllables and look at the stressed and unstressed syllables. If you match the lines in the first choice up, you'll notice they match. Think of it like a nursery rhyme. One of the reasons nursery rhymes are easy to remember is because of the rhythm of the lines. They match throughout. Apply that to these lines.

If you apply what I've just said, you'll notice that choice C has a rhythm that doesn't quite match in the way the other lines do.

(i) Fan’s.

(ii) Room’s.

(iii) Orchestra’s.

(iv) Play’s.

(v) Parent’s.

(vi) Buses’.

(vii) Mother’s.

(viii) Tom’s.