Read the excerpt from It's Our World, Too!: Young People Who Are Making a Difference. "We shouldn't stand for it. We should quit the team. We have twenty-one players on the team, and ten of us are Hispanic. Most of the best players are Hispanic. Without us, there wouldn't even be a team. If we quit, we could wake up this whole community."

In this excerpt, the author
to persuade readers to believe in something.

Based on the context of this excerpt from w. w. jacobs's "the monkey's paw," what does the word placidly mean? without, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlour of laburnam villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly. father and son were at chess, the former, who possessed ideas about the game involving radical changes, putting his king into such sharp and unnecessary perils that it even provoked comment from the white-haired old lady knitting placidly by the fire. a. completing a task in a frantic manner b. having a particular motive for an action c. appearing to be calm and relaxed d. acting harshly or stubbornly