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Information and IdeasEasyCentral Ideas and Details (locating an explicitly stated detail)

Information and Ideas practice question

Ruth Asawa (1926–2013) was an American artist best known for her hanging wire sculptures. In 1947, Asawa traveled to Toluca, Mexico, where she watched local artisans loop wire into sturdy baskets for carrying eggs. Fascinated, she learned the looping technique from them. Back in the United States, Asawa applied that technique to a very different purpose: she formed the wire into large, transparent shapes that hung from gallery ceilings and cast intricate, lacelike shadows on the walls behind them.

According to the text, what did Asawa do after she learned the looping technique used by the artisans in Toluca?

  1. A. She used the technique to make hanging sculptures rather than baskets.Correct
  2. B. She traveled through Mexico teaching the technique to other artists.
  3. C. She began weaving wire egg baskets to sell in galleries.
  4. D. She gave up working with wire and began painting shadows on walls.

Answer: A. She used the technique to make hanging sculptures rather than baskets.

The text states that Asawa learned the artisans' looping technique and then applied it "to a very different purpose": large hanging wire forms, not baskets. Choice A restates this. B invents a detail—the text says she learned from the artisans in Toluca, not that she taught anyone. C confuses the artisans' product (egg baskets) with what Asawa herself made. D misreads the final clause: the sculptures cast shadows on gallery walls; nothing indicates Asawa painted or abandoned wire.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. She traveled through Mexico teaching the technique to other artists.
The text says Asawa learned the technique from the artisans in Toluca; it never says she taught it to anyone, so this detail isn't in the passage.
C. She began weaving wire egg baskets to sell in galleries.
Egg baskets were what the Toluca artisans made. Asawa applied their looping technique to "a very different purpose" — hanging sculptures, not baskets.
D. She gave up working with wire and began painting shadows on walls.
The final sentence says her wire sculptures *cast* shadows on the walls; she kept working in wire and didn't paint anything.

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