Question

instructions
read the question carefully and select the best answer.
based on the following passage (paragraphs 17-18), what is most likely one of the author’s opinions?
some make it past new york or boston before running out of fuel. since the electricity is probably not on at this point, rather than find a working gas pump, it’s easier to just abandon the car and steal the new one. who can stop you? all the cops are in rhode island.
the edge of the crowd spreads outward into southern massachusetts and connecticut. any two people who meet are unlikely to have a language in common, and almost nobody knows the area. the state becomes a patchwork chaos of coalescing and collapsing social hierarchies. violence is common. everybody is hungry and thirsty. grocery stores are emptied. fresh water is hard to come by and there’s no efficient system for distributing it.
a. it is easy to steal a car if one is desperate enough.
b. putting the entire world’s population in such a small area would create deadly chaos.
c. a tank of gas will likely get you from rhode island to new york or boston.
d. knowledge is the key to getting out of any bad situation.

Explanation:

The passage describes a breakdown of social order in a collapsed system, with widespread hunger, empty grocery stores, and violence as common. It notes that a small area is already in chaos with collapsing hierarchies, implying that adding the entire world's population would worsen this into deadly chaos. Option A is a minor detail, not a core author opinion. Option C is contradicted, as the text says people can't reach NY/Boston before running out of fuel. Option D is not mentioned in the passage.

Answer:

B. Putting the entire world's population in such a small area would create deadly chaos.