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"Nelly Bly Undercover"

by Dr. Howard Markel

Getting committed proved rather easy, even if neither Bly nor her editors had a clear plan of getting her released once the story was filed. She took a room at a cheap boarding house, “Temporary Home for Females, No. 84 Second Avenue,” under the name Bly Brown and began questioning and imitating the women who seemed most insane to her. Soon enough, it was Bly who was deemed crazy. The matron of the house enlisted a few cops to escort Bly to the Essex Market Police Courtroom, where an impatient judge named Duffy pronounced her insane and ordered her to the famed insane ward at Bellevue Hospital, the city’s largest charitable hospital.

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Question
Use the excerpt from the “How Nellie Bly went undercover to expose abuse of the mentally ill” article to answer the question.

Which of the following would be an invalid inference to make about this excerpt?

(1 point)
Responses

People considered the mentally insane to be unable to determine their own status.
People considered the mentally insane to be unable to determine their own status.

People found it important to give the mentally insane a safe place to live.
People found it important to give the mentally insane a safe place to live.

Only someone who was medically qualified could declare someone mentally insane.
Only someone who was medically qualified could declare someone mentally insane.

The mentally insane were considered a danger to society.
The mentally insane were considered a danger to society.

1 answer

The invalid inference to make about the excerpt is:

People found it important to give the mentally insane a safe place to live.

While the excerpt discusses the actions surrounding Nellie Bly's commitment and the perceptions of those deemed insane, it does not indicate that there was a general consensus or importance placed on providing a safe place for the mentally ill. The focus is more on the ease of declaring someone insane and the institutional response rather than the care or safety of individuals in such facilities.