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College

**Going Underground**

**Clark Benson**

The following text is the transcript of a speech.

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Hello, I’m Professor Williams, and I teach at Northeast University. Today, I’m here to talk with you about coal mines. Coal mines are one of this area’s most treasured and historical sites. In fact, the mine site attracts visitors and tourists from around the country, giving the nation a peek into our small town. I call it our small town because this is where I was born and raised. Although I eventually moved away to attend college, I came back often to see family and friends. As a child, my parents first took me to see the coal mines and mining museum when I was 11 years old.

I had already known what to expect once we got there since I had read Nathan Connor’s book, *Exploring the Mines*, several times growing up. In his book, he compares the underground mines to a massive cave, waiting to be explored (Connor 45). I must say, with my first visit to the coal mines, that’s exactly the feeling I got as the mine elevator slowly took us down into the dark, cool underground maze. I can still remember squinting to try to adjust to the darkness and even feeling a little scared inside as we went down that first time.

I visited the coal mines several times after that, either with my family or through school trips. However, once I graduated from high school, it would be another 10 years before I returned. This time, I was seeing the mines as a teacher of history, and I used my return visit to do research for a book I was working on about the coal mines.

It may sound funny, but I still got those same mixed feelings of fear and excitement as the elevator took me down into the cool underground. But once I got out my pen and paper, and the tour guide started to fill me in on what he knew about the mine and its history, it was all business. Much of the machinery and tools the miners had used were still down there. In fact, my tour guide was even using an original “coal oil” lamp to light our way through the mines. The coal oil lamps were one of the most important pieces of equipment to the miners, and each miner had his own special lamp (Johnson 79).

I had started my research on the mines with the goal of writing about the mine itself; the look and feel of the mine, and the coal it produced that helped fuel machinery and heat homes. However, in the end, my book ended up being more about the miners than the mines. Most miners endured long and hard hours of working underground, and without receiving much pay. Perhaps Marybeth Anderson said it best when she called the underground mines, “a great place to visit, but not somewhere I’d want to work” (Anderson 121).

I couldn’t agree more.

**Works Cited**

Anderson, Marybeth. *Working Underground: Stories from Miners*. New York: Viking, 1997.

Brady, Andrew. *A View From the Underground: Photographs from America’s Coal Mines*. Boston: Imagination, 1980.

Connor, Nathan. *Exploring the Mines*. New York: Penguin, 1965.

Johnson, Cathleen. “A Life Underground: Essential Tools for a Miner.” *New York Times*. 15 May 1905, natl. ed.: B1.

Newsome, Ann. *A History of America’s Fossil Fuels*. Boston: Grammercy, 2002.

Peterson, Horace. *Fueling the Country: How Coal Mines Changed the Nation*. Chicago: Viking, 2004.

Quentin, M.J. “Were You Related to a Coal Miner?” *Hampton Gazette*. 5 January 1999: E8.

Stanley, LizBeth. *How Native Americans Were Affected by the Hunt for Coal*. New York: Bantam, 2009.

Tropez, Hannah. “Coal Mines across America.” *Virginian-Pilot*. 13 December 2000: A2.

Zeek, Terrence. “African Americans and the US Coal Mines.” *Philadelphia Inquirer*. 1 April 2006, E4.

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Which best states the central claim in the passage?

A. The coal mines still have some of the machines used to mine coal long ago.

B. Professor Williams originally intended to write about the mines of his hometown, but he became more fascinated by the lives of the actual miners.

C. "Coal oil" lamps were the most important piece of equipment for miners when they were at work deep under the ground.

D. Professor Williams grew up in coal-mining country.

Answer :

The central claim of the passage is B. Professor Williams originally intended to write about the mines of his hometown, but he became more fascinated by the lives of the actual miners.

B. Professor Williams originally intended to write about the mines of his hometown, but he became more fascinated by the lives of the actual miners.

The central claim of the passage is that Professor Williams, although initially interested in writing about the physical aspects of the coal mines, ultimately became more intrigued by the lives and experiences of the miners themselves.

This is evident throughout the passage as Professor Williams reflects on his childhood visits to the mines, his return as an adult to conduct research, and his realization that the miners' stories were more compelling than the physical structures of the mines.

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