by Mark Twain
“On the 19th of December, 1853, I started from St. Louis on the evening train bound for Chicago. There were only twenty-four passengers, all told. There were no ladies and no children. We were in excellent spirits, and pleasant acquaintanceships were soon formed. The journey bade fair to be a happy one; and no individual in the party, I think, had even the vaguest presentiment of the horrors we were soon to undergo.
“At 11PM it began to snow hard. Shortly after leaving the small village of Welden, we entered upon that tremendous prairie solitude that stretches its leagues on leagues of houseless dreariness far away toward the jubilee Settlements. The winds, unobstructed by trees or hills, or even vagrant rocks, whistled fiercely across the level desert, driving the falling snow before it like spray from the crested waves of a stormy sea. The snow was deepening fast; and we knew, by the diminished speed of the train, that the engine was plowing through it with steadily increasing difficulty. Indeed, it almost came to a dead halt sometimes, in the midst of great drifts that piled themselves like colossal graves across the track. Conversation began to flag. Cheerfulness gave place to grave concern. The possibility of being imprisoned in the snow, on the bleak prairie, fifty miles from any house, presented itself to every mind, and extended its depressing influence over every spirit.”
"Cannibalism in the Cars" by Mark Twain
Question
Use the passage to answer the question.
Which inference is best supported by the details in the passage?
(1 point)
Responses
The passengers remain cheerful, despite the bad weather.
The passengers remain cheerful, despite the bad weather.
The heavy snow causes the train to slow down.
The heavy snow causes the train to slow down.
The bad weather leads the passengers to expect a horrible experience.
The bad weather leads the passengers to expect a horrible experience.
The passengers are aboard a train headed for Chicago in winter.
1 answer
The best supported inference by the details in the passage is:
The heavy snow causes the train to slow down.
This conclusion is directly supported by the text, which describes how the train was "plowing through" the snow with "steadily increasing difficulty" and mentioned that there were times it "almost came to a dead halt."
