Information and IdeasVery hardCentral idea of a passage on a scientific habit
Information and Ideas practice question
Field biologists have long recorded what they see, not what they expect, and the discipline's best discoveries have come from the gap between the two. The naturalist who noted that a wasp returned to a nest she had moved, rather than to the place where it had been, was not testing a theory. She was writing down an inconvenience, and the inconvenience turned out to be how insects find their way home.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
- A. Careful recording of unexpected observations, rather than theory-driven testing, has produced some of field biology's most important discoveries.Correct
- B. Wasps cannot find their way home.
- C. Field biologists should always test a theory.
- D. The naturalist set out to discover how insects navigate.
Answer: A. Careful recording of unexpected observations, rather than theory-driven testing, has produced some of field biology's most important discoveries.
The gap between expectation and observation, and a wasp that showed it.
Why the other answers are wrong
- B. Wasps cannot find their way home.
- The wasp did find its nest.
- C. Field biologists should always test a theory.
- The text praises recording over testing.
- D. The naturalist set out to discover how insects navigate.
- She was not testing a theory.
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