It's easy enough to make a claim. People claim they've seen aliens, turned iron into gold, and all sorts of things. But can they prove it? Chances are very good that the answer is no.

Before you make a claim about a passage of text, you need to be sure you can support, or prove, your claim. To find out if there is support for what you believe to be true, read the entire passage with your claim in mind. As you read, note any details that would support your point of view. Equally important--identify details that would contradict, or disprove, your claim.

The memoir "Snakes Alive!" describes author Rahul Alvares's experience working with snakes in an animal park in India when he was just a teenager. Read (or re-read) this passage from Alvares's book, and think about what claims you could make about the text based on the evidence.

After analyzing the evidence in Alvares's memoir, you might be able to make one of the claims below. Only one claim in each of these sets is supported by evidence in the "Snakes Alive!" passage, though. Read each set carefully, and click the claim that could be proven using textual evidence.