Question

Read the passage and answer the question:

1 In the traditions of Sacramento Valley Native Americans, mysterious figures were transported over water in a raft to create the world. One dove from the raft into the water and came up with dirt. From that soil the world was formed. 4 Passengers were moved by stagecoach. By 1854, many of the stage operators were merged by James Birch into the California Stage Company. Birch's stage line controlled eighty percent of the stagecoach traffic over 3,000 miles of routes connecting the western portion of the United States. In 1856, Birch lobbied Congress to establish a national wagon road. He presented Congress with a petition from Northern California with 75,000 signatures. As one of the largest petitions yet received by Congress, they responded by establishing three wagon roads to the Pacific Coast and appropriating $600,000 for a twice-weekly overland mail service from St. Louis to San Francisco. 6 Great wealth was to be gained by a wagon toll road over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to Virginia City and even greater fortunes in a transcontinental railroad. The railroad would offer enormous opportunities for California and the Sacramento region to grow. The potential bounty of Sacramento Valley agriculture was to be realized with faster and more efficient transportation. Sacramento merchants would organize and build the western half of that railroad. 9 As urban areas developed, streetcar systems evolved, first pulled by horses and later using electricity. For those in urban areas, it was the first experience at the freedom of cheap efficient public transportation. Urban transportation led to interurban systems that would ultimately evolve into an electric passenger railroad system, linking the Bay area with Sacramento and smaller Valley communities all the way to Chico.


A student is planning to use information from this passage in a research paper. Which paragraph contains information that should be cited?

A) Paragraph 1
B) Paragraph 4
C) Paragraph 6
D) Paragraph 9

Answer 1

Answer: The right answer is the B) Paragraph 4.

Explanation: Just to elaborate a little on the answer, it can be added that paragraph 4 is the one that contains a significant amount of specific and factual information, primarily data, that wouldn't be easily paraphrased (written using one's own words), and, therefore, should be cited. The information contained in the other paragraphs could be more easily paraphrased, so it would not have to be cited.