Self-paced
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Summary
Ms. Smith is complaining about a mass punishment. Some kids were throwing raisins, so the school took away recess from the entire class for two days. Her son wasn't one of the raisin-throwers, and she says everyone knew who was responsible.
The principal responds with an analogy. He compares the son's situation to being stuck in a traffic jam caused by an accident. You didn't cause the accident, but you're still sitting there in traffic. Instead of giving a direct reason why the whole class needed to lose recess, he points to a situation where innocent people suffer through no fault of their own and says: same thing here.
1.
If the principal is speaking ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ████████ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ████ ████ ███ █████████ ████████ ████
a
many children were ████████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████
Unsupported. The principal says nothing about how many or few children were throwing raisins in the cafeteria.
b
Ms. Smith's son █████ ███ ████ ██████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████
Very strongly supported. The principal’s analogy likens Ms. Smith’s son to people who didn’t cause the traffic jam they’re stuck in. This suggests that the principal believes Ms. Smith’s son might not have caused the incident that led his class to lose recess.
c
after an accident ███ █████████ ███████ ████ ███ █████████ ██████ ██ ██████ ████████
Unsupported. The principal does not mention police activity or give any reason to believe that she thinks police generally cause traffic jams after accidents.
d
Ms. Smith's son █████ ███ ██ ███ ████ █████ ███████ ██ ███ █████████
Unsupported. The principal doesn’t comment on whether or not anyone knows who threw the raisins. Rather, Ms. Smith is the one who believes that “everyone” knew who the culprits were.
e
losing two days ██ ██████ ████ █████ ██████ ███████████
Unsupported. The principal doesn’t comment on the motivations behind the decision to take away two days of recess. Maybe she thinks it will deter future disruptions, or maybe it’s just generally meant to punish the students.