Alice was not scared. Not at all. Maybe a little bit. But she was determined to confront the ghost in her house. Alice lived in a farmhouse but in 1921. All of the floors and doors were original the doors even had skeleton key locks. But by far the most terrifying part of the house was the basement. She kept that door locked and ignored the thumps crashes, and cries that came from below the house. What made Alice determined to confront the ghost today was the especially loud crash the previous night. She'd gotten no sleep, convinced the ghost was going to break through the door and do something horrible. What she was sure, but the ghost would do somethingAlice had seen the ghost, but what he could be making loud noise in an old house? The one time she had been down in the basement was her buying the house unseen. Once she saw the shelves with old glass jars, she was a de put off. But what made her keep the door shut and locked was the abrupt end of the concrete floor halfway across the room Because nothing good ever happened in a basement with a diet for Alice had seen enough horror movies to know thatAce stared at the basement door, trying to gather enough confidence to open it and march down the stairs like she owned the place. Because she did-or she would, once she finished paying her mortgage in 30 years. Alice took a deep breath and yanked the door open. She marched down the stairs, only to stop abruptly at the bottom. Because she was face to face with not a ghost at all it was a calico-cat one who looked utterly unimpressed by her brave journey into the basementWhich of the following phrases from the passage added humor to an otherwise fearful mood?