Question

Rain puts a bounce in my step and a smile on my face, especially gentle, steady rain like we have enjoyed the last few days. My brother Carlos mopes around the house, complaining about his canceled soccer game, but I am grateful for every drop. It turns the grass bright green and brings the wilting garden back to life. All living things depend on water.


2
Water falling from clouds has shaped human lives for thousands of years. In ancient Egypt, which received very little rainfall, agriculture depended on the annual flooding of the Nile River. The floods were very predictable. They started in August or September and lasted about two months. Rich minerals in the floodwater stayed behind, making the soil fertile. The Egyptians probably did not know why the river rose so far at that time of year. Today, we know that it resulted from seasonal rains in the mountains far to the south, where one branch of the river began. We have those rains to thank for the great culture of ancient Egypt.


3
In the United States in the 1800s, many pioneers set out westward across the Great Plains. Most of them kept traveling until they got to Oregon. The Great Plains got too little rainfall to be good farmland, but more generous rains farther west supported settlement. Later, in the 1930s, years of drought were a major cause of the Dust Bowl. People abandoned their farms in parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas because they could no longer grow crops. I’ll bet they would have welcomed a gentle, steady rain instead of moping around the house!




4
Ancient Egypt, the pioneers, and the Dust Bowl are in the past, but my garden is important to me in the present. It needs rain, and so do I. The rain makes everything seem clean and fresh. And besides, if we did not have rain, we would never have a chance to gaze at a beautiful rainbow!


Rain: A Matter of Perspective


1 Gray skies press low, my mood sinks deep,
Three days of rain, no sun to keep.
The puddles grow, the soccer’s gone,
The light I love has all withdrawn.

2 Yet far away in times long past,
Rain carved our lives both slow and fast.
The Nile would rise, the people cheer,
Its floods brought hope year after year.

3 Those mountain rains so far away
Gave Egypt’s crops their golden day.
Without that gift, their fields would die,
And pyramids might never rise.

4 Across the plains, the settlers dreamed,
But little rain left fields ungleamed.
They chased the clouds toward Oregon’s crest,
Where generous rain would grant them rest.

5 Then came the Dust Bowl’s choking years,
The land grew dry; the people’s tears
Could not bring back the crops they’d sown—
The rain had vanished; hearts had grown.

6 So when the clouds roll gray and near,
I think of how the past is clear:
Rain builds and breaks, both curse and song—
Without it, life would not last long. In "Marvelous Moisture," the author explains that rainfall has supported life and shaped history. Which sentence should be added to address the counterclaim that too much rain causes destruction and to strengthen the author's argument?

Rainfall has no lasting effects on land after a flood occurs.

While heavy rainfall can cause flooding, those same waters often bring nutrients that renew soil and support future harvests.

Flooding destroys farmland completely, leaving no chance for crops to grow again.

Ancient people feared rain because they believed it caused sickness.

Answer 1

"While heavy rainfall can cause flooding, those same waters often bring nutrients that renew soil and support future harvests."

Reason: This sentence acknowledges the counterclaim (that heavy rain can be destructive) but immediately refutes it by showing the beneficial effects of floods—matching the essay's point about floods leaving rich minerals (e.g., the Nile) and strengthening the overall argument.