Question

11th RCT1 Q2

Stimuli 1

Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) wrote The Jungle, published in 1906, in which he demonstrated conditions within a meatpacking factory in Chicago. Read the excerpt below and the answer the two questions that follow.


“There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit uncounted billions of consumption1 germs. There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers2 together. This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one – there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit.

There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage. There were the butt-ends of smoked meat, and the scraps of corned beef, and all the odds and ends of the waste of the plants, that would be dumped into old barrels in the cellar and left there. Under the system of rigid economy which the packers enforced, there were some jobs that it only paid to do once in a long time, and among these was the cleaning out of the waste barrels. Every spring they did it; and in the barrels would be dirt and rust and old nails and stale water – and cartload after cartload of it would be taken up and dumped into the hoppers with fresh meat, and sent out to the public's breakfast. Some of it they would make into "smoked" sausage – but as the smoking took time, and was therefore expensive, they would call upon their chemistry department, and preserve it with borax and color it with gelatin to make it brown. All of their sausage came out of the same bowl, but when they came to wrap it they would stamp some of it "special," and for this they would charge two cents more a pound.”

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle, 1906
1 – bacteria that causes tuberculous, a respiratory illness


2
(a)

Which of the following best explains Sinclair’s perspective on why the meatpacking factory would allow for such questionable practices and working conditions?

A
Because the factory was not provided regulations by the government to promote safety and cleanliness

B
Because the factory was confident that no inspection would uncover the many worker-safety issues

C
Because the factory had no way of disposing the spoiled meat in an environmentally safe way

D
Because the factory saw little ethical issue in lying to the public if it meant they could make more money

(b)

Which of the following quotes best supports your answer to Part A?

A
“It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls (b)

Which of the following quotes best supports your answer to Part A?

A
“It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats.”

B
“These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers together.”

C
“There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage.”

D
“All of their sausage came out of the same bowl, but when they came to wrap it they would stamp some of it "special," and for this they would charge two cents more a pound.”

Answer 1

(a) D — Because the factory saw little ethical issue in lying to the public if it meant they could make more money.

Reason: Sinclair criticizes the packers' prioritizing profits over health and ethics.

(b) D — “All of their sausage came out of the same bowl, but when they came to wrap it they would stamp some of it 'special,' and for this they would charge two cents more a pound.”

This quote directly shows deliberate deception to increase profit.