Question

Please Help!

Read this sentence that appears in the first half of the article “5 Held in a Plot to Bug Democrats’ Office Here”: In Court yesterday, one suspect said the men were "anti-Communists" and the others nodded agreement. How does this sentence help develop the main idea of this article?

A. It reinforces the burglars’ connections to Cuba, a Communist country.
B. It proves that the burglars were crazy.
C. It supports the idea that the burglary was related to politics.
D. It demonstrates that the burglars were all working together as a team.

Answer 1

C) The burglars were politics related. I didn't read the article, but this is probably most related to Nixon's Watergate scandal.

A is incorrect because they are anti-communist, so wouldn't support Cuba.
B is a logical fallacy and completely unrelated to the article.
D is wrong for obvious reasons: teamwork isn't the main idea of the article.

Answer 2

The correct answer is C. It supports the idea that the burglary was related to politics.

Indeed, the article is about the crime of breaking and entering into the Democratic Party’s offices located in the Watergate Building, by five individuals hired by important members of the Nixon administration and the Republican Party. This context helps interpret their motives and prosecutors surely knew the crime was politically motivated. However, this particular piece of testimony from one of the defendants proves the political motivations of the crime. Nixon pretended initially that this was a common burglary, this statement proves him wrong.

Republican have always been staunch anti-communists/leftists and they have always accused Democrats of being “commie sympathizers”. This type of discourse proves the political affiliation of the burglars.