In Midnight Assassin, Patricia Bryan and Thomas Wolf write, “Hossack and his wife, Margaret, had nine children, including five, ranging in age from thirteen to twenty-six, who were in the house at the time of the assault.” Is this a fact or an opinion? How can you tell?
Answer
A
It is an opinion, because the authors have no way of knowing who was in the house when Hossack was assaulted.
B
It is an opinion, because the authors are imagining the scene in order to make the events more vivid for the reader.
C
It is a fact, because the ages and locations of the Hossack children can be verified by primary source documents or eyewitness accounts from the time of the murder.
D
It is a fact, because secondary sources contain only facts, never opinions.
Explanation
This is a fact because it makes a specific claim about how many children were in the house and their ages. Those details could be checked against primary source documents or eyewitness accounts from the time of the murder. The fact that the claim appears in a secondary source does not automatically make it true, but it can be verified using evidence.
AI-written and checked against the verified answer.