Selecting the Best Evidence

The following passage is narrated by a sailor named Charlie Marlow. Select the best evidence to support the statement "The Company was filled with ambitious employees."

"I flew around like mad to get ready and before forty-eight hours, I was crossing the Channel to show myself to my employers and sign the contract. In a very few hours, I arrived in a city that always makes me think of a whited sepulchre. Prejudice no doubt. I had no difficulty in finding the Company's offices. It was the biggest thing in the town, and everybody I met was full of it. They were going to run an over sea empire and make no end of coin by trade.

"A narrow and deserted street in deep shadow, high houses, innumerable windows with Venetian blinds, a dead silence, grass sprouting right and left, immense double doors standing ponderously ajar. I slipped through none of these cracks, went up a swept and ungarnished staircase, as arid as a desert, and opened the first door I came to."

Adapted from Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

• "I had no difficulty in finding the Company's offices."

• "They were going to run an over sea empire and make no end of coin by trade."

• "It was the biggest thing in the town, and everybody I met was full of it."

• "A narrow and deserted street in deep shadow, high houses, innumerable windows with Venetian blinds, a dead silence, grass sprouting right and left, immense double doors standing ponderously ajar."

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The following passage is narrated by a character named Holden Caulfield. Select the best evidence to support the statement "Holden thinks that older people are set in their ways and unwilling to change." \

She asked me where I went to school now, and I told her Pencey, and she said Pencey was a very good school. Even if I'd wanted to, I wouldn't have had the strength to straighten her out. Besides, if she thought Pencey was a very good school, let her think it. You hate to tell new stuff to somebody around a hundred years old. They don't like to hear it. Then, after a while, I left. It was funny. She yelled "Good luck!" at me the same way old Spencer did when I left Pencey.

From J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye. Copyright 1945 by J. D. Salinger

Submit

• "You hate to tell new stuff to somebody around a hundred years old."

• "She yelled "Good luck!" at me the same way old Spencer did when I left Pencey."

• "They don't like to hear it. "

• "Even if I'd wanted to, I wouldn't have had the strength to straighten her out. "

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Select the best evidence to support the statement "The narrator's father is a calm and secure man.

The tiny share we have of time appalls me, though my father seems to regard it with tranquillity. Even my father, who sometimes seems to me to have been at home in the world as long as it has lasted, has really lived on this earth only a little longer than I have, in terms of all the time there has been to live in. He has not known a time, any more than I, when automobiles and electric lights did not at least exist. He was not alive when this century started. I will be barely alive—old, old—when it ends. I do not like to think of it.

From Alice Munro, "Walker Brothers Cowboy." Copyright 1997 by Alice Munro

• "Even my father, who sometimes seems to me to have been at home in the world as long as it has lasted, has really lived on this earth only a little longer than I have, in terms of all the time there has been to live in. "

• "...though my father seems to regard it with tranquillity. "

• "He has not known a time, any more than I, when automobiles and electric lights did not at least exist."

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Consider this claim:

Private charities are more effective at providing social services than government-funded social programs are.

Which is the strongest evidence to support the claim?

Only 56 percent of people enrolled in programs supported by the federal Workforce Investment Act got jobs. By contrast, Cincinnati Works, a privately-funded readiness program, has a placement and retention rate of 84 percent. According to Robert Jackson, a history professor, "It contradicts traditional American values for the government to force citizens to contribute to charities, which is essentially what funding social services through tax dollars does."

• Only 56 percent of people enrolled in programs supported by the federal Workforce Investment Act got jobs.

• By contrast, Cincinnati Works, a privately-funded readiness program, has a placement and retention rate of 84 percent.

• The American Red Cross, a private charity, responds to nearly 64,000 disasters every year and provides almost 391,000 emergency services to the country's armed forces and their families

• According to Robert Jackson, a history professor, "It contradicts traditional American values for the government to force citizens to contribute to charities, which is essentially what funding social services through tax dollars does."

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Consider this claim:

To increase road safety, undocumented immigrants should be allowed to obtain driver's licenses.

Which is the strongest evidence to support the claim?

• "It has nothing to do with if they're in the country legally or illegally," said Julie Powell, a spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol. "Our main concern is that the people of California are safe, and one way to [do that] is to make sure California drivers are tested, trained, and insured."

• "While undocumented immigrants form the backbone of many key industries in California, exclusion from the ability to apply for a license has meant a simple trip to work or school can easily morph into a nightmare," said Jon Rodney, a spokesman for the California Immigrant Policy Center.

• Experts estimate that in 2012, more than eleven million undocumented immigrants resided in the U.S., and they made up more than three percent of the total population.

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Consider this claim:

Wikipedia is not a reliable source for academic research.

Which is the strongest evidence to support the claim?

• Wikipedia is a non-profit, which means that any profit it makes is reinvested in the business.

• Information on Wikipedia is not necessarily posted by subject-matter experts.

• Wikipedia is not a print resource; it is only offered online

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CCSS.RI.7.8

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Consider this claim:

Students on college campuses have become increasingly intolerant of opinions that differ from their own.

Which is the strongest evidence to support the claim?

• The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education reports a growing trend of guest speakers getting disinvited to speak on campuses because portions of student body disagree with something that the speaker did, said, or believes.

• Rising college senior Andy Haley reports, "Students I know seem unwilling to engage with viewpoints that challenge their beliefs. My brother graduated eight years ago and says that people used to be a lot more open-minded on college campuses."

• The University of California at Berkeley spent over $600,000 in preparations and security for a visit by conservative writer Ben Shapiro in 2017.

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Consider this claim:

Public schools should provide music and art classes because they are important for children's development.

Which is the strongest evidence to support the claim?

• According to the director of a national association dedicated to music education, "Growing up in a musically rich environment is often advantageous for children's language development."

• In a recent survey, a majority of elementary school students reported that they enjoy their music and art classes as much as or more than they enjoy their math and science classes.

• At a recent symposium for music and art educators, teachers noted that a lack of funding for the arts was making their jobs more difficult.

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Consider this claim:

People should avoid getting tattoos because of the associated health risks.

Which is the strongest evidence to support the claim?

• One member of an online tattoo forum reported, "I acquired a serious infection after getting my tattoo and needed to take antibiotics."

• One survey found that one in six people ultimately come to regret their tattoos.

• According to U.S. News & World Report, infections can occur even when tattoo parlors sterilize their needles because bacteria can contaminate the tattoo ink.

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Consider this claim:

Animals should be used for research because animal research saves human lives.

Which is the strongest evidence to support the claim?

• Animal rights groups, supported by millions of Americans, state that animal lives are no less valuable and meaningful than human lives.

• Bacterial infections were once a major cause of death, but animal experiments led to the development of penicillin, which radically changed our ability to treat these infections and prevent death.

• Animals are used in research related to genetics, diagnosis, and development of new medicines and other products.

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