Question

Which sentence from the article excerpt above offers a supporting detail for the thesis, "The Martians are just to wage war on humans"?
A.
"And before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its own race."
B.
"Had our instruments permitted it, we might have seen the gathering trouble far back in the nineteenth century."
C.
"Men like Schiaparelli watched the red planet—it is odd, by the way, that for countless centuries Mars has been the star of war—but failed to interpret the fluctuating appearances of the markings they mapped so well."
D.
"The Martians seem to have calculated their descent with amazing subtlety—their mathematical learning is evidently far in excess of ours—and to have carried out their preparations with a well-nigh perfect unanimity."

Answer 1

A. "And before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its own race."

This compares the human race's own destructive nature to the justified attack of the Martians. The dodo bird went extinct due to over-hunting by humans, a completely avoidable circumstance that failed to comply. The Martians, possibly sharing the same human nature or hold the fear of going extinct, are justified to protecting themselves. They wish to avoid the similar fate of the dodo bird, which lead to the current circumstances of pledging human war.