A piece fell into our wagon. I decided not to move. Anyway, I knew that I would not be strong enough to fight off dozens of violent men! I saw, not far from me, an old man dragging himself on all fours. He had just detached himself from the struggling mob. He was holding one hand to his heart. At first I thought he had received a blow to his chest. Then I understood: he was hiding a piece of bread under his shirt. With lightning speed he pulled it out and put it to his mouth. His eyes lit up, a smile, like a grimace, illuminated his ashen face. And was immediately extinguished. A shadow had lain down beside him. And this shadow threw itself over him. Stunned by the blows, the old man was crying:

"Meir, my little Meir! Don't you recognize me . . . You're killing your father . . . I have bread . . . for you too . . . for you too . . .”

In this passage, the author suggests that cruelty can occur when people face horrible conditions. Which evidence best supports this viewpoint? Select two options.

“Anyway, I knew that I would not be strong enough to fight off dozens of violent men!”

“I saw, not far from me, an old man dragging himself on all fours. He had just detached himself from the struggling mob.”

“Then I understood: he was hiding a piece of bread under his shirt. With lightning speed he pulled it out and put it to his mouth.”

“A shadow had lain down beside him. And this shadow threw itself over him.”

“Meir, my little Meir! Don't you recognize me . . . You're killing your father . . . I have bread . . . for you too . . . for you too . . .”

The evidence that best supports this view is the sentence that shows that a shadow has fallen beside the old man and when the old man begins to lament and claim that he has bread for his son. In this case, the last two answer options are the correct answers.

We can arrive at this answer in the following way:

When reading the text, we can see that the old man hides the bread as if it were something very precious.
With this, we can see that the old man is in a situation of hunger and for this reason, bread is so valuable to him.
When the old man eats the bread, he smiles, but this smile is soon ended because the old man begins to be attacked by someone else.
Amidst the attacks, the old man begins to cry and lament, informing him that he also has bread for those who are attacking him.

This shows how all the people in the place were starving, meaning they were going through a time of horrible conditions, which makes these people cruel to each other.

This passage belongs to the book "Night" written by Elie Wiesel, where he portrays the horrors in the Nazi concentration camps.

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