Passage: The town of Pumotauro replaced its diesel pumps with electric ones in 2019. Five years later the council published the figures: fuel consumption in the village fell by thirty per cent, and the money saved paid for two new classes of recycling. Not every household agreed. Older residents complained that the change was imposed without consultation, and two businesses said the new system doubled their costs. The council answered that the savings would grow each year and defended the decision in public meetings held throughout 2019.
What is the main idea of the passage?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: B)A town changed to electric pumps and faced both savings and opposition.
💡 Explicación
The main idea of a passage is the claim that the whole text supports. Here the change, the measured saving and the resistance are all parts of one argument about the same decision, so an answer that leaves out any of them is incomplete.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: B)A town changed to electric pumps and faced both savings and opposition.
A)Older residents were opposed to every change in their village.No. That claim goes beyond the text: only some older residents objected, and only to this particular change.
B)A town changed to electric pumps and faced both savings and opposition.Correct! This captures the change, the measured benefit and the disagreement, which together make up the whole passage.
C)The council decided not to change the fuel system of the village.No. The passage says the opposite, since the pumps were replaced and the decision was defended in public meetings.
D)Two businesses in the village asked the council for money.No. The businesses said their costs doubled, but nothing in the passage reports that they requested money.
💡 Explicación
The main idea of a passage is the claim that the whole text supports. Here the change, the measured saving and the resistance are all parts of one argument about the same decision, so an answer that leaves out any of them is incomplete.
Pregunta 2
Pregunta 2 · D3Bloom: Understand
Passage: Notebooks filled with notes are the most common study tool in any school. Yet research carried out in four universities found that students who rewrote their notes by hand remembered on average forty per cent more of a lecture than students who typed the same notes. The researchers are careful about the explanation they offer. They did not test whether handwriting itself is responsible. What they varied was the amount of thinking the note-taker had to do, because summarising by hand forces a choice and copying on a keyboard does not.
Which option states the main idea of the passage?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: C)Taking notes by hand may help memory, but the reason is not fully established.
💡 Explicación
A main idea can include a qualification. When a text reports a finding and then limits the explanation it supports, both halves belong to the central claim, and an answer giving only the finding misses the point the text emphasises.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: C)Taking notes by hand may help memory, but the reason is not fully established.
A)Typing notes is always better than writing them by hand.No. The passage reports the opposite result for the situation it studied, so this contradicts the text.
B)Universities should ban laptops during lectures.No. The passage reports a research finding and never recommends any such rule for institutions.
C)Taking notes by hand may help memory, but the reason is not fully established.Correct! It reports the finding and, in the same claim, the caution the researchers themselves expressed about the cause.
D)Most students prefer typing because it is faster than handwriting.No. Nothing in the passage reports the preferences or the speed of the students who took part.
💡 Explicación
A main idea can include a qualification. When a text reports a finding and then limits the explanation it supports, both halves belong to the central claim, and an answer giving only the finding misses the point the text emphasises.
Pregunta 3
Pregunta 3 · D4Bloom: Analyze
Passage: A rule is not the same thing as a law, although ordinary conversation mixes the two. A law is created by the legislature and carries a punishment that a court can impose. A rule is an instruction issued by a school, a club or a company, and it can only be enforced by the body that wrote it. This difference matters in daily life. A student who breaks a school rule may be suspended, but nothing a school does can put the student in prison, and no school rule can override the constitution of the country.
Which statement best expresses the main idea of the passage?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: B)A rule and a law differ in origin, enforcement and reach.
💡 Explicación
The passage defines two terms, separates them on three criteria and then shows why the separation has consequences. A main idea that reproduces the three criteria is complete, whereas one that reports a single definition covers only part of the argument.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: B)A rule and a law differ in origin, enforcement and reach.
A)Rules are more powerful than laws in most institutions.No. The passage states the opposite, since a rule is enforced only by the body that created it and can never override the constitution.
B)A rule and a law differ in origin, enforcement and reach.Correct! Those three points are developed in order and are exactly what the final paragraph then applies to a real case.
C)Ordinary conversation is the only reliable way to classify legal obligations.No. The text criticises ordinary conversation for mixing the two terms, so it does not endorse it as a method.
D)Schools should be allowed to decide which punishments they impose.No. The passage gives a legal limit on what a school may do and makes no recommendation about extending its powers.
💡 Explicación
The passage defines two terms, separates them on three criteria and then shows why the separation has consequences. A main idea that reproduces the three criteria is complete, whereas one that reports a single definition covers only part of the argument.
Pregunta 4
Pregunta 4 · D4Bloom: Analyze
Passage: The Amazon is often described as the lungs of the planet, and the image is repeated so often that it has stopped carrying information. Trees do produce oxygen, but so does every green plant on earth, and the share produced by one forest basin is small compared with the total. The term is misleading in a second way. It suggests that cutting trees stops the planet from breathing. What deforestation actually removes is the capacity of a living soil to hold carbon and water, and with it the rainfall that other regions depend on.
Which option best captures the central argument of the passage?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: A)A familiar slogan about the Amazon is misleading about what its forests do.
💡 Explicación
A text that opens by criticising a familiar phrase usually builds its main idea around that criticism. The two reasons given for the misleading quality and the correction offered at the end all belong to that single central point.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: A)A familiar slogan about the Amazon is misleading about what its forests do.
A)A familiar slogan about the Amazon is misleading about what its forests do.Correct! The passage explains the two ways in which the slogan misleads and what deforestation really removes.
B)The Amazon produces most of the oxygen in the atmosphere.No. The passage explicitly denies this, saying the share from one basin is small compared with the total from all green plants.
C)Tropical forests are the least important ecosystems in the world.No. The passage argues that forests matter greatly, and it criticises the slogan for misdescribing why.
D)The phrase lungs of the planet is scientifically exact.No. The passage argues that the image is misleading precisely because it has stopped carrying information.
💡 Explicación
A text that opens by criticising a familiar phrase usually builds its main idea around that criticism. The two reasons given for the misleading quality and the correction offered at the end all belong to that single central point.
Pregunta 5
Pregunta 5 · D3Bloom: Understand
Passage: Reading aloud to younger children at home costs nothing and lasts about fifteen minutes. Studies of early literacy have found that the number of words a child hears before the age of five is a better predictor of later reading than the number of books the family owns. Book ownership is easier to measure, which is why surveys report it more often. The two figures often move together, but one causes the other far less often than parents expect.
What claim does the whole passage support?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: A)Speaking to children matters more for reading than owning books does.
💡 Explicación
When a passage compares two things and then says which matters more, that comparison is the main idea. The reason the less important thing is measured more often is a supporting detail that explains the prevalence of a common misconception.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: A)Speaking to children matters more for reading than owning books does.
A)Speaking to children matters more for reading than owning books does.Correct! It states the comparison the passage supports and, with it, the practical consequence for families.
B)Families with more books always raise better readers.No. The passage says the opposite, noting that book ownership predicts reading much less often than parents expect.
C)Surveys about early literacy are not reliable.No. The passage explains why one figure is reported more often, not that the surveys are untrustworthy.
D)Children should not read books before the age of five.No. Nothing in the passage suggests that, and its recommendation runs in the opposite direction.
💡 Explicación
When a passage compares two things and then says which matters more, that comparison is the main idea. The reason the less important thing is measured more often is a supporting detail that explains the prevalence of a common misconception.
Pregunta 6
Pregunta 6 · D4Bloom: Analyze
Passage: Every generation is told that its youth cannot concentrate. The complaint is old enough that it can be checked. Schoolchildren in 1900 spent long stretches copying text from a blackboard, a task that demanded sustained attention, and examination results of that period show no collapse in memory. What has changed is not the capacity for concentration but the number of interruptions around it. A student today interrupts and is interrupted several times an hour, and the attention that survives earlier is the attention that is never broken.
Which statement best expresses the main idea?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: C)Constant interruption, rather than a loss of ability, explains the modern attention problem.
💡 Explicación
A main argument is the position a text defends against a possible objection. Here the possible objection is that young people have lost the capacity for attention, and the passage answers it with the number of interruptions instead.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: C)Constant interruption, rather than a loss of ability, explains the modern attention problem.
A)Concentration has declined because of the quality of the tasks given to children.No. The passage compares copying with modern tasks but attributes the change to interruptions, not to the difficulty of the work.
B)Complaints about young people are typical of every generation.No. That observation is the opening of the passage, and it is used to set up the real argument about interruptions.
C)Constant interruption, rather than a loss of ability, explains the modern attention problem.Correct! The historical evidence and the final sentence both point at interruptions as the cause the passage defends.
D)Schools should return to the copying exercises used in 1900.No. The passage never makes that recommendation; the historical example is used as evidence, not as a proposal.
💡 Explicación
A main argument is the position a text defends against a possible objection. Here the possible objection is that young people have lost the capacity for attention, and the passage answers it with the number of interruptions instead.
Pregunta 7
Pregunta 7 · D3Bloom: Understand
Passage: Plastic bottles are collected for recycling in many towns, and the collection is often presented as the solution to a growing waste problem. Inspectors who visited four sorting plants last year found that fewer than half of the bottles collected were actually processed into new bottles. The rest went to mixed waste, was contaminated by other materials or was exported. Recycling remains worthwhile, but the fraction of the material that returns to a new bottle is much smaller than the collection figures suggest.
Which option best identifies the central claim of the passage?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: D)Collected bottles are not all recycled, so collection figures overstate the result.
💡 Explicación
The passage opens by naming the common claim and then supplies figures that qualify it. The central point is the gap between what is collected and what is recycled, and the final sentence makes that gap the conclusion rather than a detail.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: D)Collected bottles are not all recycled, so collection figures overstate the result.
A)Plastic recycling should be stopped because it does not work.No. The passage states that recycling remains worthwhile, so it does not argue for stopping it.
B)Plastic bottles are exported to countries that recycle them properly.No. Export is mentioned only as one reason bottles failed to become new bottles in the plants inspected.
C)Mixed waste is the main cause of pollution in the region.No. Mixed waste appears only as one of the reasons a collected bottle was not processed, and the passage makes no claim about regional pollution.
D)Collected bottles are not all recycled, so collection figures overstate the result.Correct! It states the gap between collection and processing, which is the point the inspection results support.
💡 Explicación
The passage opens by naming the common claim and then supplies figures that qualify it. The central point is the gap between what is collected and what is recycled, and the final sentence makes that gap the conclusion rather than a detail.
Pregunta 8
Pregunta 8 · D4Bloom: Evaluate
Passage: A coastline is often treated as a line, because that is how it appears on a map. On the ground it is a band whose width changes with the tide, the season and the level of the river that reaches it. Planning rules that treat it as a line then produce two predictable errors. Buildings are placed on land that floods every few years, and protective walls built along the old line leave the new line unprotected. Mapping the band instead of the edge is a small technical decision with expensive consequences.
Which option best states the main idea of the passage?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: A)Treating a coastline as a fixed line causes real mistakes in planning.
💡 Explicación
The passage contrasts a conventional representation of something with what that thing actually is, and the contrast exists in order to explain consequences. A main idea that keeps the error and the consequences is complete; one that keeps only the error is not.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: A)Treating a coastline as a fixed line causes real mistakes in planning.
A)Treating a coastline as a fixed line causes real mistakes in planning.Correct! It states the conceptual error and both of the practical consequences the passage then develops.
B)Coastal maps in general are drawn with poor accuracy.No. The passage does not criticise maps as such; it criticises one specific way of representing a coastline.
C)Flooding in coastal areas cannot be predicted.No. The passage says flooding happens every few years in certain places, which implies it can be anticipated.
D)Protective walls should never be built along a coastline.No. The passage criticises walls built at the wrong line, not the construction of walls as such.
💡 Explicación
The passage contrasts a conventional representation of something with what that thing actually is, and the contrast exists in order to explain consequences. A main idea that keeps the error and the consequences is complete; one that keeps only the error is not.
Pregunta 9
Pregunta 9 · D4Bloom: Analyze
Passage: Libraries in several countries now lend equipment as well as books. In one district the catalogue includes a thermal camera, a set of soldering irons, a sound level meter and a sewing machine. The argument for the change is not that libraries should replace shops. It is that a great deal of equipment is bought once, used a few times and then stored in a cupboard for the rest of its life. Sharing such an object makes the purchase unnecessary for most households without removing the option for those who want it.
What is the main purpose of the passage?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: A)To explain why sharing rarely used equipment through libraries is sensible.
💡 Explicación
Purpose is what a text is trying to achieve on the reader. Here the text persuades about a specific proposal and at the same time limits the proposal it is defending, and both movements belong to that single purpose.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: A)To explain why sharing rarely used equipment through libraries is sensible.
A)To explain why sharing rarely used equipment through libraries is sensible.Correct! It presents the equipment, the argument and the limit of that argument, which is the whole purpose of the text.
B)To show that libraries should stop lending books in favour of equipment.No. The passage says the opposite, describing the catalogue as one addition to what libraries already do.
C)To report that households no longer wish to own objects of any kind.No. The passage says the option of owning is not removed, so the claim goes beyond the text.
D)To compare the cost of equipment in different countries.No. No comparison of prices or budgets appears anywhere in the passage.
💡 Explicación
Purpose is what a text is trying to achieve on the reader. Here the text persuades about a specific proposal and at the same time limits the proposal it is defending, and both movements belong to that single purpose.
Pregunta 10
Pregunta 10 · D4Bloom: Evaluate
Passage: A city can measure its own air quality and publish the result, which is a genuine advance on guessing. Measurement is not the same as improvement. Three cities with excellent instruments continued to report unhealthy air for years because the measurements were used to decide when to reduce traffic rather than to reduce it. Two of them now publish the level at the same hour each morning, so that residents can plan their walks, and the daily figure has become more useful than a monthly average ever was.
Which option best expresses the main idea of the passage?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: A)Air quality data is only valuable when it is used and published usefully.
💡 Explicación
A text that begins by granting part of what a reader might doubt often uses that concession to sharpen its real claim. Here the passage grants that measurement is an advance, and the main idea is about what has to happen after the measurement.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: A)Air quality data is only valuable when it is used and published usefully.
A)Air quality data is only valuable when it is used and published usefully.Correct! It holds together the contrast between measuring and acting and the daily figure that answers the criticism.
B)Measuring air quality is pointless in large cities.No. The passage calls the measurement a genuine advance and shows a case in which it became more useful, not pointless.
C)Monthly averages are the best way to report air quality.No. The passage says the daily figure proved more useful than the monthly average, so the claim is the reverse.
D)Reducing traffic is the only effective response to bad air.No. That response is presented as one decision taken badly by three cities, not as the passage's own recommendation.
💡 Explicación
A text that begins by granting part of what a reader might doubt often uses that concession to sharpen its real claim. Here the passage grants that measurement is an advance, and the main idea is about what has to happen after the measurement.
Pregunta 11
Pregunta 11 · D4Bloom: Analyze
Passage: Children who move countries often lose months of schooling. Their new school has records of the system they left, written in terms its teachers do not use, and the family may speak a language the school does not have. One programme in three countries now issues a portable record of what a pupil has covered, and schools that accept it report shorter delays before the new class places the child. The record does not remove the problem of different curricula, but it makes the first weeks considerably less costly.
Which statement best summarises the passage's central claim?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: C)A portable record of study eases the cost of changing schools.
💡 Explicación
The final sentence of a passage frequently states the limit of what has been proposed, and that limit belongs to the main idea. A summary that reports the measure as a complete solution misrepresents what the text claims.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: C)A portable record of study eases the cost of changing schools.
A)Children should remain in the same school system throughout their childhood.No. The passage addresses what happens when children move, and it makes no case for preventing movement.
B)Different countries have completely incompatible school systems.No. The passage describes incompatibility as a difficulty the record reduces, not as an absolute claim.
C)A portable record of study eases the cost of changing schools.Correct! It states the measure, the reported effect and the limit that the final sentence places on it.
D)Schools should use one identical curriculum in every country.No. The final sentence accepts that different curricula remain, so the passage does not argue for one curriculum.
💡 Explicación
The final sentence of a passage frequently states the limit of what has been proposed, and that limit belongs to the main idea. A summary that reports the measure as a complete solution misrepresents what the text claims.
Pregunta 12
Pregunta 12 · D3Bloom: Understand
Passage: The word algorithm was once used to describe a rule that a clerk followed in an office. It is still a perfectly good use of the word. What has changed is that the rule no longer needs to be written down anywhere. A modern recommendation system reads what a person watches and chooses the next item without any human reading a list of conditions, and the clerk is replaced by a machine that follows instructions nobody can recite. The old sense of the word remains, but it no longer describes most of what the word now names.
Which option best captures what the passage argues?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: D)The common sense of the word algorithm has shifted, while the old sense survives.
💡 Explicación
A passage that begins with the older sense and ends by returning to it usually turns on the change in between. The main idea therefore has to hold the survival of the old meaning and the new dominant meaning at the same time.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: D)The common sense of the word algorithm has shifted, while the old sense survives.
A)The word algorithm should no longer be used for a written set of rules.No. The passage explicitly defends the old sense, saying it remains a perfectly good use of the word.
B)Recommendation systems follow rules that are written down by engineers.No. The passage says the rules are not written down and cannot be recited by anyone.
C)Machine decisions are easier for people to understand than office procedures.No. The passage suggests the opposite, since the machine's instructions are no longer legible to a human reader.
D)The common sense of the word algorithm has shifted, while the old sense survives.Correct! It states both halves, which is exactly the contrast the passage develops from its first sentence to its last.
💡 Explicación
A passage that begins with the older sense and ends by returning to it usually turns on the change in between. The main idea therefore has to hold the survival of the old meaning and the new dominant meaning at the same time.
Pregunta 13
Pregunta 13 · D4Bloom: Analyze
Passage: Students in several provinces take an exam that determines which universities they can enter. Two years ago the ministry published the subjects with the weakest average scores. Physics came last, with a mean well below the passing mark. Rather than reorganise the exam, the ministry did something simpler: it gave every school a physics teacher for one extra period a week. The same schools that had reported the lowest averages recorded the largest improvements the following year, which is consistent with the shortage of teaching hours being the cause.
Which option best summarises the argument the passage makes?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: B)Extra teaching time improved physics results more than changing the exam did.
💡 Explicación
When a passage describes an intervention and a result that follows from it, the main point combines the two and the reasoning offered. An answer that keeps only the result loses the argument that the text was built to make.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: B)Extra teaching time improved physics results more than changing the exam did.
A)Physics should not be part of the entrance examination.No. Nothing in the passage questions the presence of physics in the exam; it questions how the exam was prepared for.
B)Extra teaching time improved physics results more than changing the exam did.Correct! It reports what was done, what happened and why the result supports the explanation the passage offers.
C)Provinces with the lowest averages cannot improve their results.No. The passage reports the opposite, since the lowest schools showed the largest gains after the change.
D)Publishing average scores by subject is a mistake.No. The publication is what allowed the shortage to be identified, and the text treats it as a useful step.
💡 Explicación
When a passage describes an intervention and a result that follows from it, the main point combines the two and the reasoning offered. An answer that keeps only the result loses the argument that the text was built to make.
Pregunta 14
Pregunta 14 · D4Bloom: Evaluate
Passage: Volunteering is described in school reports as evidence of character, and no one argues with the sentiment. The measurement is another matter. Reports often list hours given, and hours are the easiest thing to count, yet a student who spends four weekends collecting money and a student who reads aloud to blind residents every week can end up with identical totals. Programs that replace the number with a description of what was actually done report more varied outcomes and give families a clearer picture of what a place offers.
Which option best states the main idea of the passage?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: C)Counting volunteer hours hides real differences between kinds of service.
💡 Explicación
The passage grants the sentiment behind a practice and then questions how the practice is measured. That distinction between the value of an activity and the quality of its record is what the main idea is built on.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: C)Counting volunteer hours hides real differences between kinds of service.
A)Students should be required to volunteer a minimum number of hours.No. The passage questions the counting of hours rather than arguing for a compulsory total.
B)Reading aloud is the most valuable form of volunteering.No. That activity is an example used to show that different activities can produce the same total.
C)Counting volunteer hours hides real differences between kinds of service.Correct! It states the criticism the passage develops and the alternative it proposes in the last sentence.
D)School reports should stop mentioning volunteering altogether.No. The passage proposes describing the work rather than removing it from reports.
💡 Explicación
The passage grants the sentiment behind a practice and then questions how the practice is measured. That distinction between the value of an activity and the quality of its record is what the main idea is built on.
Pregunta 15
Pregunta 15 · D4Bloom: Analyze
Passage: A map of a city built from satellite images can show where the parks are with great accuracy. It can also show why they are missing. Informal settlements in three examined cities contain less green space per resident than the official districts, and the pattern follows the grid of the roads rather than the density of the population. The planners who reviewed the images did not conclude that the settlements should be removed. They concluded that the difference is produced by how land is allocated, and that allocation is a decision someone makes.
What is the main idea of the passage?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: B)Differences in green space come from how land is allocated, not from population density.
💡 Explicación
A passage that presents data and then states what the planners concluded is making an argument from evidence. The main idea is the conclusion the evidence supports, and an answer that reports only the evidence misses the argument.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: B)Differences in green space come from how land is allocated, not from population density.
A)Satellite images are not a reliable way to study green space in cities.No. The passage calls the images highly accurate and uses them to reach a finding.
B)Differences in green space come from how land is allocated, not from population density.Correct! It states the finding and the conclusion the planners drew from it, which is what the whole passage supports.
C)Informal settlements in these cities are too poor to maintain parks.No. The passage attributes the difference to land allocation and explicitly rejects a removal-based conclusion.
D)Official city districts need more parks than they currently have.No. The passage compares the districts favourably with the informal settlements, so the deficit is described elsewhere.
💡 Explicación
A passage that presents data and then states what the planners concluded is making an argument from evidence. The main idea is the conclusion the evidence supports, and an answer that reports only the evidence misses the argument.
Pregunta 16
Pregunta 16 · D4Bloom: Apply
Passage: A sleep study recorded the timing of each stage of sleep in a group of volunteers. The participants who reported being woken by noise showed a shortened third stage, and their reported quality of sleep fell with it. The researchers point out a limit of the design: the volunteers who slept worst were also the ones most likely to report noise, because a bad night makes a sound more noticeable. The correlation is real in their data, and the direction of the cause is exactly what they cannot establish.
Which statement best represents the argument of the passage?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: D)The data show a link between noise and poor sleep without settling the direction of cause.
💡 Explicación
Researchers commonly report what their data show and then name the inference their design cannot support. Both halves are part of the central claim, and an answer that keeps only the first half is what the passage is warning against.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: D)The data show a link between noise and poor sleep without settling the direction of cause.
A)Noise in the bedroom is proven to be the main cause of poor sleep.No. The passage says the direction of cause is precisely what the study could not establish, so a proof would overstate it.
B)Participants who sleep badly always report more noise than those who sleep well.No. That restates a detail of the design as an absolute claim and loses the study's caution about it.
C)Volunteers in sleep studies do not notice small sounds in the night.No. The passage suggests the opposite, since a bad night makes a sound more noticeable.
D)The data show a link between noise and poor sleep without settling the direction of cause.Correct! It states the correlation and, at the same time, the specific limit the researchers identified.
💡 Explicación
Researchers commonly report what their data show and then name the inference their design cannot support. Both halves are part of the central claim, and an answer that keeps only the first half is what the passage is warning against.
Pregunta 17
Pregunta 17 · D4Bloom: Evaluate
Passage: The letter of the alphabet that opens a paragraph is called a topic sentence, and textbooks advise the writer to make it announce the whole paragraph. In practice the sentence that opens a paragraph often states a position rather than a topic, and the paragraphs that read best are often the ones in which the position arrives third. Students who were told to reverse that order produced pieces with the same structure each time, which readers described as mechanical. The advice is not wrong; it is a description rather than a rule.
What is the main message of the passage?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: D)A standard advice about paragraphs is useful but is stated more rigidly than practice allows.
💡 Explicación
A passage that describes conventional advice and then reports departures from it is making a claim about the status of that advice. The claim is a qualification, and a main idea must include the qualification rather than choose one side of it.
Ver respuesta
Respuesta correcta: D)A standard advice about paragraphs is useful but is stated more rigidly than practice allows.
A)Topic sentences should always be placed at the end of a paragraph.No. The passage says good paragraphs vary, and a fixed position at the end would be as mechanical as a fixed position at the start.
B)Readers dislike any paragraph that follows a familiar structure.No. Readers are reported as describing the uniform structure as mechanical, which is a narrower criticism than this option makes.
C)Students should be taught to write topic sentences that announce whole paragraphs.No. The passage reports the advice in order to qualify it, not to endorse it as a teaching rule.
D)A standard advice about paragraphs is useful but is stated more rigidly than practice allows.Correct! It holds together the description of the advice and the evidence that practice departs from it.
💡 Explicación
A passage that describes conventional advice and then reports departures from it is making a claim about the status of that advice. The claim is a qualification, and a main idea must include the qualification rather than choose one side of it.
Pregunta 18
Pregunta 18 · D4Bloom: Analyze
Passage: Farmers in a dry valley were told to plant a crop that grows well without irrigation. The crop was chosen because it survives where water is scarce, and it was introduced with a subsidy that lasted three years. After the subsidy ended, plantings fell by two thirds. An extension officer who had worked in the valley argued that the decline had little to do with the crop. What had changed was the price of imported grain, which fell in the third year and removed the reason for growing anything locally at all.
Which option best expresses the central point of the text?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: D)A change in the price of imported grain explains the end of local planting.
💡 Explicación
The passage sets up an explanation that a reader would expect and then replaces it with a different one. The replacement is the main idea, and an answer that keeps the expected explanation misses the argument the passage was written to make.
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Respuesta correcta: D)A change in the price of imported grain explains the end of local planting.
A)The crop introduced in the valley was a poor choice from the beginning.No. The crop was well suited to the dry conditions, and the officer said the decline had little to do with it.
B)Subsidies for agriculture should never be withdrawn.No. The withdrawal is reported as background; the officer's explanation lies in the price of imported grain.
C)Farmers in dry valleys should not be given advice by extension officers.No. The officer is quoted as a credible source whose explanation the passage adopts, not as an object of criticism.
D)A change in the price of imported grain explains the end of local planting.Correct! It states the alternative explanation the passage develops against the assumption of crop failure.
💡 Explicación
The passage sets up an explanation that a reader would expect and then replaces it with a different one. The replacement is the main idea, and an answer that keeps the expected explanation misses the argument the passage was written to make.
Pregunta 19
Pregunta 19 · D4Bloom: Apply
Passage: Two schools sent the same number of students to the same science fair and won the same number of prizes. One school had run practice sessions every week for a term; the other had held two sessions before the fair. A researcher who looked at the results concluded that the total hours of preparation, not the number of students or the quality of the equipment, matched the prizes won. The conclusion was later checked on three more schools and held in each case, though the sample was still small enough to be treated with care.
Which statement best expresses the main point of the passage?
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Respuesta correcta: C)Preparation hours explain the results better than the size of the school's entry.
💡 Explicación
A passage built around a controlled comparison reaches its main claim by naming the variable that explains the outcome and the ones it excludes. An answer must keep the comparison in place, because the claim has no meaning without it.
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Respuesta correcta: C)Preparation hours explain the results better than the size of the school's entry.
A)Winning a science fair depends mostly on the number of students a school enters.No. The two schools entered the same number of students and won the same number of prizes, so that factor is ruled out.
B)Practice sessions before a fair have no measurable effect.No. The passage reports that the schools with more preparation hours won more prizes, which is a measurable effect.
C)Preparation hours explain the results better than the size of the school's entry.Correct! It names the factor the comparison isolated and the one it ruled out.
D)The quality of the equipment used in science fairs explains the prizes.No. The passage states that the conclusion concerned preparation hours rather than the equipment.
💡 Explicación
A passage built around a controlled comparison reaches its main claim by naming the variable that explains the outcome and the ones it excludes. An answer must keep the comparison in place, because the claim has no meaning without it.
Pregunta 20
Pregunta 20 · D4Bloom: Analyze
Passage: Hospital waiting times are reported as a single number, the average number of minutes a patient spends on a chair. The number hides the shape of the day. In one hospital the average was forty minutes while five per cent of patients waited over four hours, and those five per cent were almost all people who had been sent from a rural clinic without an appointment. When the hospital published the longest waits alongside the average, staff changed the referral procedure within a season. The average barely moved.
Which option best explains the point of the passage?
Elige una opción para comprobar tu respuesta.
Respuesta correcta: B)An average can conceal the group that is actually waiting far too long.
💡 Explicación
A statistic is a summary, and a summary is most useful when the distribution behind it is understood. The passage shows that a single average hid a small group with a serious problem, and that naming that group changed what the hospital did.
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Respuesta correcta: B)An average can conceal the group that is actually waiting far too long.
A)The hospital was slow at every hour of the day.No. The passage says the average was moderate and that only a small group waited for hours, so the delay was not spread evenly.
B)An average can conceal the group that is actually waiting far too long.Correct! It states the point the passage illustrates and the change in practice that the illustration was meant to produce.
C)Rural clinics should stop sending patients to the city hospital.No. Nothing in the passage proposes closing a referral route; it reports what changed when the waiting times were described differently.
D)Publishing waiting times had no effect on the hospital.No. The staff changed the referral procedure after the figures were published, so the reporting plainly had an effect.
💡 Explicación
A statistic is a summary, and a summary is most useful when the distribution behind it is understood. The passage shows that a single average hid a small group with a serious problem, and that naming that group changed what the hospital did.
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