The Law of the Jungle, which never orders anything without a reason, forbids every beast to eat Man except when he is killing to show his children how to kill, and then he must hunt outside the hunting grounds of his pack or tribe. The real reason for this is that man-killing means, sooner or later, the arrival of white men on elephants, with guns, and hundreds of brown men with gongs and rockets and torches. Then everybody in the jungle suffers.

—“Mowgli’s Brothers,” The Jungle Book,
Rudyard Kipling

Which claim is best supported by the text evidence in this passage?

Shere Khan obeys the law of the jungle.
Shere Khan needs to hunt Mowgli, even though it is against the law of the jungle.
Shere Khan places all of the jungle animals in danger by breaking the law of the jungle.
Shere Khan hunts Mowgli because the law of the jungle permits him to.

1 answer

The claim that is best supported by the text evidence in this passage is:

Shere Khan places all of the jungle animals in danger by breaking the law of the jungle.

The passage explains that the law forbids the killing of humans because it leads to consequences that affect all animals, specifically the arrival of humans with guns and other destructive measures. This implies that breaking the law by killing a human (like Mowgli) threatens the safety of all animals in the jungle.