Reread this excerpt that details the Time Traveller’s first interaction with the Eloi, and answer the question that follows.

For a moment I was staggered, though the import of his gesture was plain enough. The question had come into my mind abruptly: were these creatures fools? You may hardly understand how it took me. You see, I had always anticipated that the people of the year Eight Hundred and Two Thousand odd would be incredibly in front of us in knowledge, art, everything. Then one of them suddenly asked me a question that showed him to be on the intellectual level of one of our five-year-old children—asked me, in fact, if I had come from the sun in a thunderstorm! It let loose the judgment I had suspended upon their clothes, their frail light limbs, and fragile features. A flow of disappointment rushed across my mind. For a moment I felt that I had built the Time Machine in vain.

Which of these best describes the method Wells uses to characterize the Eloi in the highlighted portion of this excerpt?

Then one of them suddenly asked me a question that showed him to be on the intellectual level of one of our five-year-old children—asked me, in fact, if I had come from the sun in a thunderstorm!

Group of answer choices

Indirectly, by illustrating the advancements of the future

Indirectly, by revealing what the Time Traveller said to them

Directly, by stating how their actions affected the Time Traveller

Directly, by describing how the Eloi answered the Time Traveller’s question