Question

Read the paragraph.

Before the Industrial Revolution, most goods were made by hand, in peoples’s homes. Workers would buy raw materials and complete each step in the process to make a finished product. Manufacturing by hand took a long time, and therefore, the prices for finished goods was high. Industrialization changed all that. Machines took over the manufacturing process. These machines were much more efficient than workers creating items by hand. This meant that many more items could be produced, drastically reducing their price, and making them more affordable for consumers.

Which would be the best example to use to support the information in this body paragraph?
The price of cotton cloth declined more than 50% from 1700 to 1800.
The price of shoes doubled from 1700 to 1800.
Fewer people owned firearms in 1800 than in 1700.
Fewer people lived in rural areas in 1800 than in 1700.

Answer 1

The price of cotton cloth declined more than 50% from 1700 to 1800

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

The price of cotton cloth declined more than 50% from 1700 to 1800

Step-by-step explanation:

The point of this paragraph is to explain how industrialization affected the price of goods and the process of how they were made. So, supporting information needs to be relevant to the subject of the paragraph and accurate with what the paragraph is describing.

So, we have four choices. As I stated above the first option is correct, so lets ignore that one for now. We can eliminate the second answer because it provides information that is the exact opposite of what the paragraph describes. It is inaccurate. The paragraph describes how the price of goods decreased as the industrial revolution occurred. However, this answer choice is suggesting that prices increased for shoes during the time the industrial revolution took place. So this choice is incorrect.

The third option we can eliminate because it is irrelevant. As stated above, the subject of the paragraph is how industrialization affected the price and manufacturing of goods. The amount of people owning firearms is not relevant to what the subject of the paragraph is because it is not talking about the price, or the manufacturing of firearms. So we can eliminate this answer.

The fourth option can also be eliminated. The reason is because this option is irrelevant as well. How many people lived in rural areas is not relevant to the subject of the paragraph.

So, we are left with the first answer choice. We know that this is the correct option because it is the only answer out of the four that is relevant to the subject, and is accurate alongside the information provided in the paragraph. Prices declined through the process of industrialization and the first answer choice describes exactly that. The information is correct and relevant.