Read the excerpt from “Everyday Survival.”
And yet almost any organized action can help you recover the ability to think clearly and aid in your survival. For example, Pvt. Giles McCoy was aboard the U.S.S. Indianapolis when it was torpedoed and sank at the end of World War II, tossing some 900 men into the black of night and the shark-infested Pacific. McCoy, a young Marine, was sucked under the boat and nearly drowned. He surfaced into a two-inch-thick slick of fuel oil, which soaked his life vest and kept him from swimming—although he could see a life raft, he couldn’t reach it. So he tore off his vest and swam underwater, surfacing now and then, gasping, swallowing oil, and vomiting. After getting hoisted onto the raft, he saw a group of miserable young sailors covered in oil and retching. One was “so badly burned that the skin was stripped from his arms,” Doug Stanton writes in his gripping account of the event, In Harm’s Way. McCoy’s response to this horrific situation was telling. “He resolved to take action: He would clean his pistol.” Irrelevant as that task may sound, it was exactly the right thing to do: organized, directed action. He made each one of the sailors hold a piece of the pistol as he disassembled it. This began the process of letting him think clearly. Forcing your brain to think sequentially—in times of crisis and in day-to-day life—can quiet dangerous emotions.
What kinds of evidence are used in the excerpt, and how does this evidence support the excerpt’s point?
Select all that apply
An example demonstrates a detailed account of how one individual survived a horrific situation by committing to organized action.
Data and statistics show how one individual survived a horrific situation by committing to organized action.
A definition of sequential thinking explains how one individual survived a horrific situation by committing to organized action.
A quotation from an expert establishes a credible source for the story of one individual surviving a horrific situation by committing to organized action.