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Craft and StructureMediumOverall structure: assumption overturned

Craft and Structure practice question

For decades geologists assumed the Sahara's sands had always been there. Then sediment cores drilled from the Atlantic seabed showed that the region had been green and dotted with lakes as recently as six thousand years ago. Today researchers ask not whether the Sahara was once wet but why it dried out so fast.

Which choice best describes the overall structure of the text?

  1. A. A long-held assumption is presented, overturned by new evidence, and replaced by a new question.Correct
  2. B. A hypothesis is proposed, tested by experiment, and confirmed.
  3. C. Two competing theories are compared and one is judged superior.
  4. D. A natural process is described in chronological steps.

Answer: A. A long-held assumption is presented, overturned by new evidence, and replaced by a new question.

Sentence one: the assumption. Sentence two: the evidence that overturned it. Sentence three: the question researchers now ask instead.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. A hypothesis is proposed, tested by experiment, and confirmed.
The assumption was overturned, not confirmed, and no experiment is described.
C. Two competing theories are compared and one is judged superior.
There is one assumption and one discovery, not two theories set against each other.
D. A natural process is described in chronological steps.
The text traces the history of an idea, not the steps of a process.

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