from The Very Brief Relation... / Bartolomé de las Casas

Test Practice

Use Context Clues

Discuss with your partner how to best answer the following questions.

1. Read the following passage from the selection.
And because all the people who could do so fled to the mountains to escape these inhuman, ruthless, and ferocious acts, the Spanish captains, enemies of the human race, pursued them with the fierce dogs they kept…And because on few and far between occasions, the Indians justifiably killed some Christians, the Spaniards made a rule among themselves that for every Christian slain by the Indians, they would slay a hundred Indians.
What is the best definition of ruthless based on the context clues in the passage above?
a. scary
b. kindly
c. cruel
d. helpless


Which clues lead you to choose answer c? How did you eliminate answers?

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