Summarizing Question
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by Bryan Ellett
Seth watched out the front window as a crew of about 10 people worked hard to destroy parts of the street in front of his house. There was a large sign down at the end of the street describing the construction project underway. It said, "Road Resurfacing. Expected completion: Fall 2009." The sign did not explain what Seth was watching out his front window. To Seth, it appeared that the destruction was somewhat random.
One man sat in the seat of a large piece of construction equipment that Seth's dad told him was called a backhoe. This giant piece of metal machinery had a scoop with jagged metal teeth at the end of a long arm, and the operator was controlling the arm and scoop with two joysticks. He would raise the arm high in the air, with the teeth of the scoop pointing downward. Then, he would bring the arm down quickly and with great force, using the teeth of the scoop to crush the concrete that it landed on. Already, this gentleman had ripped out the entire portion of sloped concrete that connected the driveway of Seth's house with the road. Several workers came along and hauled away the large pieces of concrete left behind.
Another worker was in charge of a large circular saw. He would wheel the saw to a particular piece of the road and fire it up. The spinning of the saw, even before it began cutting, created a high whining sound. Then, he would lower the saw into the concrete and cut long sections of the road. The piece of the road Seth watched him cut was about eight feet long and two feet wide. Seth could tell that the saw operator was working extremely hard.
Seth stepped into his front yard and looked up and down the street. Nothing made sense. Several other houses had the front portion of their driveway ripped out just as Seth's had been. But there were several more houses whose driveways were untouched. There were slices of road cut out here and there, but Seth could see no pattern to the places that were cut up. He could even see one worker filling in a recently cut piece of the roadway with fresh cement. Was there any point to what they were doing, or were they just breaking things and putting them back together to kill time? Seth had no way to know, so he just went back to the window to watch. It might not make sense, but, for Seth, destruction was fun to watch.
Which of these best summarizes the last paragraph?
- Seth noticed that one worker was filling in with concrete one of the holes that had been cut.
- Seth saw that some driveways were being ripped out while others were not being touched.
- Seth was happy to be watching workers from his window because he enjoyed watching destruction.
- Seth did not understand why only parts of the road were being destroyed, so he decided to just watch and enjoy.