Is Survival Selfish?

Which is the best summary of the selection?

• It is better in moments of mortal danger to save one’s own life than to try to rescue others.

• In extreme crises, people either hold it together or fall apart, and there is no telling who the heroes will be until danger strikes.

• Heroes are admired when they risk or sacrifice their own lives to save others, but their actions go against accepted survival protocols, which prioritize personal safety.

• People who demonstrate the virtue of selfishness by putting their own lives before the lives of others in an emergency are often criticized in the press.

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.2

CCSS.RI.7.2

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

Which is a synonym for the word protocol as the author uses it in paragraph 2?

• Treat

• Convention

• Law

• Procedure

Tags

CCSS.RI.7.4

CCSS.RI.8.4

CCSS.RI.9-10.4

CCSS.RL.8.4

CCSS.RL.9-10.4

In paragraph 3, the author states that every survival situation is different. If this is true, it follows that —

• each survivor is heroic in his or her own unique way

• it is impossible to make generalizations about survivors

• only a few survivors are selfish and uncivilized

• it is impossible to be smart and unselfish

Tags

CCSS.RI.8.1

CCSS.RI.8.8

CCSS.RL.11-12.1

CCSS.RL.8.1

CCSS.RL.9-10.1

According to the author, why do survivors often experience feelings of guilt?

• They believe they should have done more to help others even if they had died trying.

• They feel irrationally to blame for the deaths of other people.

• They are confused by the conflicting moral codes attached to survival.

• They feel that they have somehow escaped justice by surviving while others perished.

Tags

CCSS.RI.11-12.5

CCSS.RI.6.5

CCSS.RI.7.5

CCSS.RI.8.5

CCSS.RI.9-10.5

In paragraph 14, the phrase a thousand cues is —

• a hasty generalization, intended to convey that people do not know what they will do in a crisis

• an overstatement, intended to convey that how people react depends on with which signals, out of the many they receive, they respond to

• an overstatement, intended to convey that survivors are able to respond to many signals at once

• a hasty generalization, intended to convey that survivors are never aware of the choices they make in the moment of crisis

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.2

CCSS.RI.8.2

CCSS.RL.7.2

CCSS.RL.8.2

CCSS.RL.9-10.2

Which of the following is a statement of fact, and not an expression of opinion?

• But we still tend to laud those who risk or sacrifice themselves to save others in moments of danger or crisis and look less kindly on those who focus on saving themselves, instead.

• If she’d tried, she probably would have perished with them.

• But Yates was criticized by some for his survival decision, even though the alternative would have almost certainly led to both of their deaths.

• If survival is an instinct, it seems to me that there must be something equally instinctive that drives us, sometimes, to run into danger instead of away from it.

Tags

CCSS.RI.9-10.6

CCSS.RI.9-10.8

“Is Survival Selfish?” describes different kinds of human response to mortal danger and their outcomes. Mark the box that shows which outcome results from each behavior.

• Self Sacrifice - Public Acclaim

• Self Sacrifice - Survival

• Self Preservation - Public Acclaim

• Self Preservation - Survival

Tags

CCSS.RI. 9-10.7

CCSS.RI.8.7

CCSS.RL.8.5

CCSS.RL.8.7

CCSS.RL.9-10.7