[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-487088-105":59,"doc-detail-487088-en":131},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":124,"head_meta":126,"extra_data":128,"updated_unix":130},105,"en","the-salem-witch-trials-reading-comprehension-questions","The Salem Witch Trials - Reading Comprehension Questions","","Salem Village, Massachusetts, in 1692 became the center of witchcraft accusations driven by fear and rumor. Young girls reported visions and fits, naming neighbors until suspicions multiplied across the community. A special court accepted “spectral evidence,” allowing testimony about a person’s ghostly torment without physical proof. Roughly twenty people were executed and others died in jail conditions, but later leaders condemned the practice; the governor ended the court and forbade spectral evidence. Afterward, officials acknowledged error and the trials were remembered as a warning about unreliable evidence and unfair proceedings.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":20,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/exam/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/the-salem-witch-trials-reading-comprehension-questions/487088/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/the-salem-witch-trials-reading-comprehension-questions/487088.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"dawugda","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-03","2026-09-30",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",12,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What was “spectral evidence” according to the passage?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"It was testimony claiming the accused’s ghostly specter appeared in a vision and tormented someone, even though others could not see it.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How did influential ministers change public opinion about the court?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"They argued that spectral evidence was unreliable because the devil could imitate an innocent person’s shape.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"Why did the accusations begin to collapse in late 1692?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"The governor dissolved the special court and forbade spectral evidence, causing cases to collapse and prisoners to be released.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},487088,1790871832,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":134,"doc_module":4,"category_id":19,"category_name":20,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":135,"file_id":136,"file_url":137,"file_type":138,"file_size":139,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":52,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},3985747870947,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","Imagine a whole town where a single accusation could send your neighbor to jail, and where the strongest \"proof\" against you was a dream someone claimed to have had. That was Salem Village, Massachusetts, in the year 1692. In just a few months, a wave of suspicion swept through this small Puritan community north of Boston, and dozens of ordinary people found themselves standing trial for witchcraft. It began quietly, with a few strange fitsand whispered names, and then it spread faster than anyone could stop it. By the time the fear burned out, the colony had done something it would spend generations trying to  \nexplain.  \nThose whispered names came from an unlikely source: a group of young girls. In early 1692, a few girls in Salem Village, including nine-year-old Betty Parris and her cousin, began having sudden fits, shouting and twisting in ways the local doctor could not explain. When pressed to say who was hurting them, the girls named three women, and soon the accusations multiplied. Neighbors accused neighbors, and even a fouryear-old and a former minister ended up under suspicion. Can you picture a town so gripped by fear that almost no one seemed safe from being pointed at next?  \nTo sort out this flood of accusations, the colony set up a special court in the summer of 1692. Here is the part that troubles historians most: the judges accepted something called \"spectral evidence. \" This meant a person could testify that the accused's ghostly shape, or specter, had appeared in a vision and tormented them, even though no one else could see it. Think about how impossible that would be to disprove. With such flimsy \"proof\" allowed in the courtroom, the number of the condemned kept climbing.  \nThat climbing number came at a terrible human cost. By the fall of 1692, about twenty people had been executed, most of them by hanging, and others died in the harsh conditions of jail while awaiting trial. The accused were mostly women, though men and even a respected former minister were among them. What makes the whole episode so unsettling is how ordinary the victims were, farmers, mothers, and grandmothers swept up in their own community's panic. No physical evidence ever tied any of them to a crime.  \nThat absence of real evidence eventually caught up with the court itself. As the accusations  \nreached wealthier and more powerful families, influential ministers and leaders began to speak out against spectral evidence, arguing that the devil could imitate an innocent person's shape. In late 1692, the governor dissolved the special court and forbade spectral evidence in the trials that remained. Almost overnight, the cases collapsed, and the remaining prisoners were gradually released. The frenzy that had seemed unstoppable simply ran out of fuel once its central \"proof\" was thrown out.  \nOnce the fever passed, Salem was left to face what it had done. In the years that followed, judges and jurors publicly admitted their error, and one judge, Samuel Sewall, stood in church to accept his guilt. The colony even set aside a day of fasting to mourn the injustice, and years later it offered money to some  \nvictims' families. Today the Salem trials are studied not as a ghost story but as a warning about what happens when rumor replaces reason and fear overrides fair trials. Perhaps the most haunting fact of all is that not one of the twenty people executed was guilty of anything at all.  \nThe Salem Witch Trials  \nName:  \n\n| Solve each problem.\u003Cbr>Use the article to answer the question.\u003Cbr>1) According to the passage, what was \"spectral evidence\"?\u003Cbr>A. Written confessions that the accused signed while being held in jail\u003Cbr>B. Objects found in a home that were believed to be used for witchcraft\u003Cbr>C. Statements from a doctor who examined the accused for unusual marks\u003Cbr>D. Testimony that the accused's ghostly shape appeared in a vision to torment someone |  |  |  |  | Answers\u003Cbr>1.  \u003Cbr>2.  \u003Cbr>3.   |  |  |  |  |  |\n| --- | --- | --- | ---","cbCaioXdYJVBHsIn","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaioXdYJVBHsIn","pdf",93363,"English","# Reading Comprehension Questions\n## Questions 1-6\n## Answers","[{\"question\":\"What was “spectral evidence” according to the passage?\",\"answer\":\"It was testimony claiming the accused’s ghostly specter appeared in a vision and tormented someone, even though others could not see it.\"},{\"question\":\"How did influential ministers change public opinion about the court?\",\"answer\":\"They argued that spectral evidence was unreliable because the devil could imitate an innocent person’s shape.\"},{\"question\":\"Why did the accusations begin to collapse in late 1692?\",\"answer\":\"The governor dissolved the special court and forbade spectral evidence, causing cases to collapse and prisoners to be released.\"}]","The Salem Witch Trials - Reading Comprehension Questions | PDF",1790807792,25]