A quotation question tests whether a writer’s words support a specific claim. Read the claim in the question itself, then put it in a few words. Ask who the claim is about and what it says they can do, because the quotation must show both. Predict the kind of evidence you need, then put each quotation in plain words, including any images. A line that shares the topic isn’t enough unless it shows the claim.
Hints
- Hint 1
Find the claim stated in the question, not only the opening description of the book. What does it say about ordinary people’s role in history?
- Hint 2
Put any images in a quotation into plain words. Who is doing something, and what do their efforts change?
Step-by-step
Trace who shapes history
Step 1Put the claim in plain words
The claim that ordinary people can actively influence what becomes part of history is about people’s power to shape the record, not archives in general. What would a quotation have to show? Ordinary people must do something themselves, and their efforts must affect what gets remembered as history. We can predict a line connecting those efforts to a change in the historical record.
- Step 2
Test the link to history
Which lines show that people actively influence what becomes part of history? The shelves have limits quotation describes libraries restricting which stories appear, with no ordinary people changing that. The twelve terabytes of storage quotation is about costs and equipment, not people shaping the record. The open hours on Saturdays quotation shows an attempt to help volunteers attend, but never says what their work adds to history. These lines describe limits, money, or access without showing an effect on the record.
- Step 3
Translate the images
What does the neighbors upload quotation mean in plain words? Neighbors add everyday records, such as letters and bus passes, to the archive, and the city’s story grows new roots means the records they add expand the city’s history. In history bends toward the hands that hold the scanner, the hands stand for the people adding material, so their choices shape the record. The records they add change what gets included, which shows they affect what becomes part of history. Choice B.