16Hit 1600
Information and IdeasHardSupporting a claim about frugal engineering

Information and Ideas practice question

Development historians claim the irrigation pump's designers subordinated every engineering choice to one constraint: repairability with the tools and skills already present in rural villages. ____

Which quotation from the work most effectively illustrates the claim?

  1. A. "The team's rule, one engineer recalled, was that any part that could not be repaired in a village workshop had no place in the pump."Correct
  2. B. "The pump won an international design award the following year."
  3. C. "Early prototypes were tested at the university's hydraulics laboratory."
  4. D. "Demand for the pump eventually outstripped the factory's capacity."

Answer: A. "The team's rule, one engineer recalled, was that any part that could not be repaired in a village workshop had no place in the pump."

The claim is that local repairability governed the design; a rule excluding any part a village workshop couldn't fix is that principle stated outright.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. "The pump won an international design award the following year."
An award recognizes the design but reveals nothing about its guiding constraint.
C. "Early prototypes were tested at the university's hydraulics laboratory."
Laboratory testing is standard practice, not evidence of the repairability principle.
D. "Demand for the pump eventually outstripped the factory's capacity."
High demand shows popularity, not the design philosophy.

More Information and Ideas questions

Not affiliated with the College Board. SAT is a trademark of the College Board.