Read the passage from The Time Traveler's Guide to Elizabethan England. Perhaps the most difficult thing to come to terms with i
s the scale of death. Influenza, for example, is an affliction which you no doubt have come across. However, you have never encountered anything like Elizabethan flu. It arrives in December 1557 and lasts for eighteen months. In the ten-month period August 1558 to May 1559 the annual death rate almost trebles to 7.2 percent (normally it is 2.5 percent). More than 150,000 people die from it—5 percent of the population. This is proportionally much worse than the great influenza pandemic of 1918–19 (0.53 percent mortality). The evidence in the passage is strong because it ________.a. is exciting to read. b. rephrases the topic. c. expresses an opinion. d. is relevant to the topic.
The evidence in the passage is strong because it <u>d. is relevant to the topic.</u>
Explanation:
The topic of this passage is the mortality of influenza virus back in Elizabethan England. The writer's purpose is to show readers that the flu was much scarier and deadlier back at that time than it is today. To prove that, the writer uses numbers - 7.2 percent, 2.5 percent, 150,000, 5 percent, 0.53 percent - as evidence. Readers can compare death rates and clearly conclude that Elizabethan flu was more violent than the flu we commonly see or have nowadays. Therefore, the evidence in this passage is relevant to the topic, helping the writer prove it right.
