Is Survival Selfish

Which is the best summary of the selection?

• In moments of mortal danger, more people freeze than run, a response that goes against our survival instincts.

• In extreme crises, people either hold it together or fall apart, and there is no telling who the heroes will be until danger strikes.

• Heroes are admired when they risk or sacrifice their own lives to save others, but their actions go against accepted survival protocols, which prioritize personal safety.

• People who demonstrate the virtue of selfishness by putting their own lives before the lives of others in an emergency are often criticized publicly and in the press.

Read this sentence from paragraph 2 of the selection. "The 'women and children first' protocol of the Titanic may not be as strong a social stricture as it was a century ago." Which word is a synonym for protocol as the author uses it in this sentence?

• Structure

• Convention

• Law

• Falsehood

In paragraph 3, the author states that every survival situation is different. If this is true, it follows that —

• each survivor is heroic in their own way

• it is impossible to generalize about survivors

• only a few survivors are selfish and uncivilized

• it is impossible to be smart and unselfish

Why does the author include her personal experience about the Grand Central Station incident in paragraphs 4–5?

• To prove she’s an expert during survival situations

• To explain why she become interested in the topic of survival

• To highlight the difference between those who survive and those who don’t

• To introduce the idea that sometimes people’s instincts are not about survival

According to the author, why do survivors often experience feelings of guilt?

• They believe they should have done more to help others during the event.

• They are reminded of when they didn’t help others at other times of their lives.

• They are disturbed by the harsh criticisms from others who survived.

• They feel that the techniques others used to survive were unethical.

Which two phrases best explain the author's reasons for including the rhetorical questions in paragraph 11?

• To make the point that some people act selflessly in emergencies

• To engage readers by asking them to imagine specific survival situations

• To pass judgment on people who are driven by their survival instincts

• To propose that it is possible to predict how people will respond in emergencies

• To suggest that people should attempt to rescue others when emergencies arise

This question has two parts. First, answer Part A. Then, answer Part B. Part A: How does the author support the claim that the “fight or flight” instinct kicks in during survival situations?

• By analyzing the brain’s response during dangerous situations

• By showing how humans flee when their survival is in jeopardy

• By describing how humans and animals respond when they are in peril

• By presenting examples of animals fighting back when they are attacked

Part B: Which two sentences best support the answer to Part A?

• Perhaps it comes down to the ancient “fight or flight” impulse. (paragraph 13)

• Animals confronted with danger will choose to attack it, or run from it, and it’s hard to say which one they’ll choose, or when. (paragraph 13)

• Some people might run away from danger one day, and toward it the next. (paragraph 14)

• But while we laud those who sacrifice themselves in an attempt to save another, there is a fine line between brave and foolish. (paragraph 15)

• There can also be a fine line between smart and selfish. (paragraph 15)

In paragraph 14, the phrase a thousand cues is —

• a hasty generalization, intended to convey that people do not know what they will do in a crisis

• an overstatement, intended to convey that how people react depends on which signals, out of the many they receive, they respond to

• an overstatement, intended to convey that survivors are able to respond to many signals at once

• a hasty generalization, intended to convey that survivors are rarely aware of the choices they make in the moment of crisis

Which quotation from the selection is a statement of fact, and not an expression of opinion?

• She got out of the plane and survived. Very few others in the plane, which was soon consumed by fire, did. (paragraph 7)

• If she’d tried, she probably would have perished with them. (paragraph 8)

• But Yates was criticized by some for his survival decision, even though the alternative would have almost certainly led to both of their deaths. (paragraph 10)

• If survival is an instinct, it seems to me that there must be something equally instinctive that drives us, sometimes, to run into danger instead of away from it.