In the context of the passage as a whole, the author’s comparison between the qualities of people and of metals (paragraphs 5-6) primarily serves to

E. reinforce the author’s overarching claim about ordinary people’s capacity for success

Explanation:

Answer E

Correct. A base metal is a metal of little monetary value, as opposed to a precious metal like gold. In stating that “from apparently the basest metals we have the finest toned bells,” the author asserts that a material that is considered worthless can nevertheless become the medium for the beautiful sound of a high-quality bell. He notes that people who are not valued by society (“simple manhood,” “dregs of society”) can similarly achieve great things sometimes. He then observes that steel objects and rusty razors can actually improve in quality after being left “neglected and forgotten” in the dirt, reflecting that the most marginalized and maligned of people (“the lowly and despised”) can similarly become agents of “improvement and progress” for the world. The comparison between metals and people thus reinforces the author’s thesis that people who do not seem to possess great talent or many advantages can still achieve extraordinary things (“excellence often comes unheralded and from unexpected quarters”).

E. reinforce the author’s overarching claim about ordinary people’s capacity for success

Explanation:

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why biographies are better than plays

explanation someone is saying they like biographies better

chapter i -- paris: september, 1792

a surging, seething, murmuring crowd of beings that are human only in name, for to the eye and ear they seem naught but savage creatures, animated by vile passions and by the lust of vengeance and of hate.

during the greater part of the day the guillotine had been kept busy at its ghastly work: all that france had boasted of in the past centuries, of ancient names, and blue blood, had paid toll to her desire for liberty and for fraternity.

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