Question

Now Jim was a dreamer, but he was a thinker, too. And he thought one day that if he let his owner meet the cooter, he might get his freedom that way. After all, a talkin cooter was a wonderful thing to hear. So Jim went on back to the plantation. He found the slaveowner, and he says, “Mas, I wanter tell you about this cooter down there at the pond.”

—“The Talking Cooter,”
Virginia Hamilton

What is the topic of this passage?

Jim makes friends with a cooter.
An enslaved man believes a talking cooter will help him gain his freedom.
A talking cooter wants to meet Jim.
Jim is a talking cooter who wants to be a dreamer like his owner.

Answer 1

An enslaved man believes a talking cooter will help him gain his freedom.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

An enslaved man believes a talking cooter will help him gain his freedom.

Step-by-step explanation:

1. It’s never stated or implied that Jim and the cooter are friends.

3. Jim is leading the slaveowner to the cooter. This does not imply that the cooter wants to meet Jim, nor does it state such directly.

4. It’s stated that Jim is already a dreamer. It never says Jim is a talking cooter.

As for why the answer I gave is right, it’s because that’s what the majority of the passage is about. The second sentence states it directly, despite some minor differences in phrasing, and the rest of the passage discusses Jim trying to use the talking cooter to get freed. Hope it helps :)