Question

add an in - text citation using mla format.
it might be surprising to modern readers to learn how many buildings in chicago at the
time were made of wood. in fact, chicago \was a city ready to burn\ because two - thirds
of its buildings were made of wood.
source: the great fire by jim murphy, page 18. published by scholastic, new york 1995:
chicago in 1871 was a city ready to burn. the city boasted having 59,500
buildings, many of them—such as the courthouse and the tribune building—
large and ornately decorated. the trouble was that about two - thirds of all these
structures were made entirely of wood.

Explanation:

In MLA format, an in - text citation for a book includes the author's last name and the page number. Here, the author is Jim Murphy and the relevant page is 18. So we add (Murphy 18) at the end of the sentence that needs citation.

Answer:

It might be surprising to modern readers to learn how many buildings in Chicago at the time were made of wood. In fact, Chicago "was a city ready to burn" because two - thirds of its buildings were made of wood (Murphy 18).