SAT Information and Ideas Practice Questions
Information and Ideas is about 12 to 14 of the 54 Reading and Writing questions. It tests whether you can identify a passage's central idea, draw the inference its logic supports, and pick the evidence that would strengthen or weaken a claim.
The wrong answers in this domain are engineered to be almost right: they use the passage's own vocabulary but shift its scope or strength. The reliable defense is to answer in your own words before looking at the choices, then eliminate anything the text does not directly support.
- Question 1Central Ideas and Details · hard
According to historical documents, Marietta Strozzi—a young woman who was prominent in fifteenth-century Florentine culture—inspired several artworks, including a portrait bust sculpted by Desiderio da Settignano. Multiple sculptures dating to the period have been alleged to be the reported bust, but none have been authenticated as Desiderio's depiction of Strozzi. Given the historical importance of both Strozzi and Desiderio's sculpture of her, positively identifying the bust would be a notable accomplishment for art historians.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
AAlthough there is documentation that Desiderio was commissioned to sculpt the portrait bust of Strozzi, numerous instances of false identification have made art historians skeptical that the sculpture will be uncovered.BAlthough successfully finding and authenticating Desiderio's portrait bust of Strozzi remains a challenge, the historical importance of the work justifies the continued pursuit of this goal.CAlthough numerous fifteenth-century Florentine portrait busts have been recovered over time, evidence has led art historians to conclude that Desiderio's bust of Strozzi is likely no longer extant.DAlthough historians strongly suspect that a particular sculpture is Desiderio's portrait bust of Strozzi, they do not currently have a method for conclusively verifying the artist or subject.Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: BAlthough successfully finding and authenticating Desiderio's portrait bust of Strozzi remains a challenge, the historical importance of the work justifies the continued pursuit of this goal.
Option A is incorrect
The text never says art historians are skeptical the bust will be uncovered. Its closing sentence points the other way — identifying it "would be a notable accomplishment," which frames the search as worth continuing.
Option B is correct
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Map the text's three moves: Strozzi inspired a bust by Desiderio; several candidate sculptures exist but none has been authenticated; identifying it would be a notable accomplishment.
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A main-idea answer has to carry all three, and especially the last sentence's forward-looking judgment — the difficulty is real, but the prize justifies the effort.
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Choice B says exactly that: authentication remains a challenge, and the work's historical importance justifies continuing to pursue it.
Answer: B.
Option C is incorrect
Nothing in the text suggests the bust no longer exists. It says candidate sculptures exist but remain unauthenticated, which is a verification problem, not a loss.
Option D is incorrect
The text says multiple sculptures "have been alleged" to be the bust and none authenticated — not that historians strongly suspect one particular sculpture. It also never claims a verification method is impossible in principle.
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- Question 2Inferences · hard
As complex life cycle parasites, Opechona sp. and Cucullanellus kanabus require multiple host species throughout their development. Extrapolating from parasite counts on Pacific herring and seven other fish species collected from Puget Sound from 1880 to 2019, Chelsea Wood et al. found that the abundance of three-host parasites, such as Opechona sp., negatively correlated with rising average annual sea temperatures; the abundance of two-host parasites, such as C. kanabus, was largely stable. Noting that fish and other marine vertebrates are especially vulnerable to climate change, Wood et al. observed that all three-host parasites in the study depend on at least two vertebrate species, while all two-host parasites depend on only one, suggesting that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Aalthough Opechona sp. and C. kanabus both require Pacific herring as a host, C. kanabus was more adversely affected by warming-driven changes in the Pacific herring population than Opechona sp. was.Ba parasite’s sensitivity to warming temperatures is negatively correlated with the number of unique vertebrate species it depends on throughout its life cycle.Cwarming-induced population changes among Puget Sound vertebrates may have suppressed some parasite populations, but there were no changes among the eight studied host species that affected two-host parasite abundance.Dpopulation size and density of the eight fish species examined in the study were likely largely unaffected by rising sea temperatures.Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: Cwarming-induced population changes among Puget Sound vertebrates may have suppressed some parasite populations, but there were no changes among the eight studied host species that affected two-host parasite abundance.
Option A is incorrect
This reverses the finding. It was the three-host parasites like *Opechona sp.*that declined;C. kanabus, a two-host parasite, stayed stable — so it was not "more adversely affected."
Option B is incorrect
The correlation runs the opposite way. More vertebrate hosts meant more sensitivity to warming, so sensitivity is positively, not negatively, correlated with the number of vertebrate species a parasite depends on.
Option C is correct
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Track the two patterns. Three-host parasites (depending on at least two vertebrate species) declined as temperatures rose; two-host parasites (depending on one vertebrate) stayed stable.
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The bridging fact is that marine vertebrates are especially vulnerable to climate change. So the more vertebrate hosts a parasite needs, the more exposed it is to warming.
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The logical completion: warming hurt vertebrate host populations, which suppressed the three-host parasites — while nothing among the studied hosts disturbed the two-host parasites, whose abundance held steady.
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Choice C states both halves of that pattern, which is what the "suggesting that" setup demands.
Answer: C.
Option D is incorrect
The text states marine vertebrates are especially vulnerable to climate change, so claiming the fish were largely unaffected contradicts the passage's own bridging premise.
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- Question 3Command of Evidence · hard
To understand consumer loyalty to specific online retailers, Marina Žižakov and colleagues conducted a survey using 58 statements as proxy indicators of customer experience with receiving online purchases. The statements were categorized by topic—e.g., statement 13, "I am eagerly awaiting the delivery of the ordered items," was categorized as joyful anticipation—and respondents, all of whom were from Serbia (which is characterized as having a developing economy), rated the importance of each statement to their experience. Researchers found that participants placed low importance on package aesthetics and high importance on speedy delivery and package tracking, but the researchers cautioned against applying the findings to customers generally, suggesting that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Aadditional research is needed with participants from countries of varying levels of economic development to determine whether delivery time and tracking are more important than package design to customers broadly.Bcustomers in countries with higher levels of economic development than that of Serbia are likely to regard package design as relatively more important than delivery time and transparency.Conline retailers that operate in a variety of countries are more likely to increase customer loyalty if they make their deliveries in less time and allow customers to track those deliveries than if they improve their packaging.Dthe greater importance assigned to delivery time and tracking than to package design may not be observed if the survey were to be given to a larger group of Serbian participants.Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: Aadditional research is needed with participants from countries of varying levels of economic development to determine whether delivery time and tracking are more important than package design to customers broadly.
Option A is correct
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Find the limitation the researchers themselves flag. Every respondent was from Serbia, described specifically as having a developing economy.
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That detail is only relevant if economic development might change the answers — which is exactly why the researchers "cautioned against applying the findings to customers generally."
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The logical completion is the cautious one: more research with participants from countries at varying levels of economic development is needed before generalizing.
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Choice A says that and nothing more, which matches a caution about limits rather than a new claim.
Answer: A.
Option B is incorrect
This invents a specific prediction about wealthier countries. The researchers cautioned against generalizing; they did not forecast which way other countries would lean.
Option C is incorrect
This does the opposite of cautioning — it applies the Serbian findings to retailers in a variety of countries, which is precisely what the researchers warned against.
Option D is incorrect
A larger Serbian sample doesn't address the stated concern. The limitation flagged is the single country and its level of economic development, not the sample size.
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- Question 4Central Ideas and Details · hard
In their meta-analysis of research on advergames (video games developed to promote products or services), Zeph M.C. van Berlo et al. confirm that such games, though they can elicit player interest, may not facilitate subsequent recall of product and brand information. This phenomenon can be explained by the finite nature of cognitive capacity as it is articulated in Annie Lang's limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing. In this case, players' cognitive resources are directed foremost toward the advergame's mechanics, leaving little or no capacity for encoding and storing the information the advertiser intends to be salient.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
AThe limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing developed,by Lang provides a means of explaining the finding by van Berlo et al. that players may not readily recollect the brand and product information embedded in advergames.BThe meta-analysis by van Berlo et al. reveals that higher engagement in advergame mechanics is linked to lower effectiveness in persuading players to purchase particular brands and products.CAlthough the limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing developed by Lang suggests otherwise, advergames can succeed as marketing tools, provided that they achieve a balance between game mechanics and the promotion of a brand or product.DResearch by van Berlo et al. corroborates Lang's conclusion that because people predominantly focus on game mechanics when playing video games, it is difficult for advergames to communicate brand and product information in ways that are highly memorable.Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: AThe limited capacity model of motivated mediated message processing developed,by Lang provides a means of explaining the finding by van Berlo et al. that players may not readily recollect the brand and product information embedded in advergames.
Option A is correct
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The text has two components: a finding (van Berlo et al.: advergames interest players but hurt recall of brand information) and a theory that explains it (Lang's limited capacity model).
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The connective logic is "this phenomenon can be explained by" — the model is the explanation, the finding is what gets explained.
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Choice A preserves that direction exactly: Lang's model provides a means of explaining van Berlo et al.'s finding.
Answer: A.
Option B is incorrect
The text is about recall of brand information, not persuasion to purchase. It never measures purchasing behavior or effectiveness at persuading.
Option C is incorrect
The text presents Lang's model as the explanation for the finding, not as something the evidence contradicts. It also offers no claim that a balance makes advergames succeed.
Option D is incorrect
This reverses who concluded what. The finding about advergames is van Berlo et al.'s and Lang's model explains it — the research does not "corroborate Lang's conclusion" about video games generally.
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- Question 5Inferences · hard
The morphological novelty of echinoderms-marine invertebrates with radial symmetry, usually starlike, around a central point-impedes comparisons with most other animals, in which bilateral symmetry on an anterior-posterior (head to tail) axis through a trunk is typical. Particularly puzzling are sea stars, thought to have evolved a headless layout from a known bilateral origin. Applying genomic knowledge of Saccoglossus kowalevskii acorn worms (close relatives of sea stars, and thus expected to have similar markers for corresponding anatomical regions) to the body patterning genes of Patiria miniata sea stars, Laurent Formery et al. observed activity only in anterior genes across P. miniata's entire body and some posterior genes limited to the edges, suggesting that _______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Adespite the greater prevalence of anterior genes in sea stars' genetic makeup, posterior genes active at the body's perimeter are primarily responsible for the starlike layout that distinguishes sea stars' radial symmetry from that of other echinoderms.Balthough the two species are closely related, there is only minimal correspondence in the genetic markers for head, tail, and trunk region development in P. miniata sea stars and S. kowalevskii acorn worms.Crather than undergoing changes resulting in the eventual elimination of a head region in their radial body plan, as previously assumed, sea stars' morphology evolved to completely lack a trunk and consist primarily of a head region.Dcontrary to the belief that they evolved from early ancestors with the bilateral form typical of many other animals, sea stars instead originated with an atypical body layout that was neither bilaterally nor radially symmetrical.Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: Crather than undergoing changes resulting in the eventual elimination of a head region in their radial body plan, as previously assumed, sea stars' morphology evolved to completely lack a trunk and consist primarily of a head region.
Option A is incorrect
Posterior genes appeared only at the edges, a limited presence; the text gives no basis for calling them "primarily responsible" for the starlike layout. Nor does it compare sea stars with other echinoderms.
Option B is incorrect
The comparison worked as expected — the acorn worm markers successfully mapped onto sea star anatomy, which is what made the anterior-everywhere result interpretable. Minimal correspondence would have made the study uninformative.
Option C is correct
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Note the previous assumption the text sets up: sea stars evolved a headless layout from a bilateral ancestor.
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Now the evidence: anterior (head) genes were active across the sea star's entire body, and posterior genes only at the edges. Trunk markers are conspicuously absent.
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If head-region genes cover the whole animal, the sea star did not lose its head — it lost its trunk. That inverts the assumption the text just described.
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Choice C draws exactly that conclusion: sea stars evolved to lack a trunk and consist primarily of a head region.
Answer: C.
Option D is incorrect
The text keeps the bilateral origin ("from a known bilateral origin"). What it revises is what sea stars became, not where they started.
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- Question 6Command of Evidence · hard
Community science involves professional scientists collaborating with members of the public to study a topic. This approach to research can promote community engagement by offering insight into the daily life of a scientist. It’s also very effective because it greatly increases the amount of data that can be collected, such as when biologist Abbigail Merrill and colleagues studied butterfly size and its relation to behavior and used findings reported by hundreds of students and community members in northwestern Arkansas.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
AAbbigail Merrill and colleagues used a community science approach in their butterfly research and were surprised at the effect this had on public understanding of the nature of scientists’ work.BA community science approach can increase public understanding of the nature of scientists’ work and generate large amounts of data, benefiting both communities and researchers.CA community science approach can benefit communities by increasing public understanding of the nature of scientists’ work, but it’s less likely to help researchers obtain accurate data.DA community science approach allows researchers to collect significantly more data even though it’s unlikely to have much of an effect on public understanding of the nature of scientists’ work.Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: BA community science approach can increase public understanding of the nature of scientists’ work and generate large amounts of data, benefiting both communities and researchers.
Option A is incorrect
The text never mentions Merrill being surprised, and it centers the approach's general benefits rather than one researcher's reaction.
Option B is correct
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The text names two distinct benefits of community science: it promotes community engagement by showing the public what a scientist's daily work looks like, and it greatly increases the amount of data collected.
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The Merrill butterfly study is an example illustrating the second benefit, not the point itself.
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A main idea must keep both benefits and keep both positive. Choice B does: the approach increases public understanding and generates large amounts of data, benefiting communities and researchers alike.
Answer: B.
Option C is incorrect
The text calls the approach "very effective" precisely because of the data it yields. Nothing suggests the data is less accurate.
Option D is incorrect
This drops half the passage. The first benefit stated is community engagement through insight into scientists' daily life — the text affirms that effect rather than dismissing it.
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- Question 7Central Ideas and Details · hard
The following text is adapted from William Shakespeare’s 1597 play The Tragedy of King Richard III. Richard is reflecting on the recent arrest of his brother, the Duke of Clarence, on suspicion of treason against King Edward IV. Derby, Hastings, Buckingham, Rivers, Dorset, and Grey are also members of the English nobility. RICHARD: I do the wrong, and first begin to brawl.
The secret mischiefs that I set [flowing]
I lay unto the grievous charge of others
Clarence, whom I indeed have cast in darkness,
I do beweep to many simple [gullible people],
Namely, to Derby, Hastings, Buckingham;
And tell them ’tis the Queen and her allies
That stir the King against the Duke my brother.
Now they believe it, and withal whet me
To be revenged on Rivers, Dorset, Grey.Which choice best describes what happens in the text?
ARichard attributes Clarence’s troubles to both his own secret plotting and the distrust of Clarence that the queen and her allies Derby, Hastings, and Buckingham have planted in the king’s mind.BRichard describes having wept as he informed Derby, Hastings, and Buckingham that the queen and her allies convinced the king to act against Clarence, and says that the earnestness of his grief caused them to accept his version of events.CRichard acknowledges that his mischievous nature has spurred him to commit misdeeds in the past, including instigating enmity between the king and Clarence, but he reports that he has hitherto not lost the trust of the queen and her allies.DRichard indicates that he has pretended to be aggrieved about Clarence’s situation and has proclaimed it to be the fault of the queen and her allies, but in reality, he has caused the hostility the king feels toward Clarence.Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: DRichard indicates that he has pretended to be aggrieved about Clarence’s situation and has proclaimed it to be the fault of the queen and her allies, but in reality, he has caused the hostility the king feels toward Clarence.
Option A is incorrect
Richard blames the Queen and her allies only as a lie he tells others. Derby, Hastings, and Buckingham are the "simple" listeners he deceives, not the Queen's allies.
Option B is incorrect
Richard's weeping is a performance, and what persuades the listeners is the story itself, not the sincerity of his grief — his whole point is that the grief is fake.
Option C is incorrect
Richard says nothing about retaining the Queen's trust; he is manipulating others into seeking revenge against her allies Rivers, Dorset, and Grey.
Option D is correct
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Richard is confessing in a soliloquy. "The secret mischiefs that I set flowing / I lay unto the grievous charge of others" means he causes harm and then blames others for it.
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"Clarence, whom I indeed have cast in darkness" is an admission: Richard himself put Clarence in prison.
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"I do beweep to many simple" means he performs grief in front of gullible listeners, telling them the Queen and her allies turned the King against Clarence.
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So the pattern is pretended sorrow plus false blame, concealing his own responsibility. Choice D states it precisely.
Answer: D.
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- Question 8Inferences · hard
The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires US federal agencies to assess environmental effects of potential actions, such as building highways. While many NEPA reviews require public comment, categorical exclusions (CEs) allow quick reviews with no public comment for actions that will minimally affect the environment. In 2020 the rule governing CEs was revised: before, CEs could be granted for actions that "do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect on the human environment," but the revised rule allowed CEs if actions "normally do not have a significant effect on the human environment." Environmentalists found this revision to be potentially detrimental because______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Athe increasing need to build new highways and rehablitate older highways in the US incentivizes agencies to grant CEs after 2020 for reasons that would not have been considered valid prior to 2020.Bthe 2020 relaxation of the rule regarding CEs would permit more exclusions, resulting in more reviews of actions by federal agencies and a paradoxically slower review process.Cthe rule that governed CEs before 2020 allowed expedited reviews of actions that might have significant effects on the environment if those effects were believed to be rare, while the 2020 revision of the rule subjected such actions to slower reviews.Dthe 2020 revision of the rule governing CEs would allow expedited reviews of actions that had a minimal environmental effect when considered on their own but a significant effect when considered together.Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: Dthe 2020 revision of the rule governing CEs would allow expedited reviews of actions that had a minimal environmental effect when considered on their own but a significant effect when considered together.
Option A is incorrect
The text says nothing about highway construction needs or agencies' incentives. It compares the wording of two rules.
Option B is incorrect
More exclusions mean fewer full reviews and a faster process, not slower. Categorical exclusions exist to skip the lengthy review with public comment.
Option C is incorrect
This reverses both rules. The old rule was the stricter one (it blocked exclusions for cumulative effects), and the revision loosened rather than tightened the standard.
Option D is correct
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Compare the two rules word by word. Old: exclusions for actions that "do not individually or cumulatively have a significant effect." New: exclusions if actions "normally do not have a significant effect."
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The phrase that disappeared is "or cumulatively." The old rule blocked an exclusion when many small actions added up to a significant effect; the new one no longer asks that question.
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So environmentalists' worry is that actions which are minor alone but significant in combination can now skip full review.
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Choice D describes exactly that gap.
Answer: D.
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- Question 9Command of Evidence · hard
Rudolf Cesaretti et al. conducted an analysis of historical urban scaling trends circa 1300 CE in Western Europe, focusing on agglomeration patterns within medieval settlements. They examined settlements in urban systems across Western Europe, with groupings based on regionally distinct political structures, economic focuses, and spatial constraints—including the aristocratically controlled city-state of Parma in northern Italy, merchant-controlled city-states like Goerlitz in Germany, the wool-trading centers of Lincoln and Canterbury in England, and prime trade-fair towns like Troyes in France. A prevalent trend emerged: as a city's total settled area increased, so did population density in its core urban areas. This finding implies that ______
Which choice most logically completes the text?
Aeven when they were substantial, known inter-regional differences in characteristics of urban systems had a limited effect on agglomeration patterns in medieval Western European settlements.Bthe observed relationship is heavily influenced by urban characteristics that were particular to medieval Western Europe, making it unlikely that a similarly strong relationship between area and population density would be found for medieval settlements in other regions.Cthe effects of variations in political and economic interests on agglomeration patterns were less evident in comparisons between medieval settlements within a region than in comparisons between groups of settlements across regions of Western Europe.Ddespite regional differences in their political and economic systems, medieval Western European settlements shared common spatial constraints that encouraged high population density in core urban areas.Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: Aeven when they were substantial, known inter-regional differences in characteristics of urban systems had a limited effect on agglomeration patterns in medieval Western European settlements.
Option A is correct
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Notice what the researchers deliberately varied: political structures, economic focuses, and spatial constraints, spanning Italian city-states, German merchant cities, English wool towns, and French trade-fair towns.
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Despite all that variation, one trend appeared everywhere: larger settled area went with higher population density in the core.
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When a pattern survives across deliberately different groups, those differences evidently did not drive the pattern.
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Choice A draws that inference: known inter-regional differences, though substantial, had limited effect on agglomeration patterns.
Answer: A.
Option B is incorrect
The finding held across deliberately varied regions, which argues the pattern is robust rather than peculiar to medieval Western Europe. The text also gives no data on other world regions.
Option C is incorrect
The study grouped settlements by region and found one trend across all of them; it never compares within-region variation against between-region variation.
Option D is incorrect
The text lists spatial constraints among the things that differed between the groups, so "shared common spatial constraints" contradicts the setup.
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- Question 10Central Ideas and Details · medium
In a study by Mika R. Moran, Daniel A. Rodriguez, and colleagues, residents of Panama City, Panama, and Fortaleza, Brazil, were surveyed about parks in their cities. Of the 318 respondents from Panama City, 53.5% indicated that they use the city's parks, and of the 938 respondents from Fortaleza, 35.7% indicated using city parks. Given that the percentage of Panama City respondents who reported having access to other desired amenities near parks was much lower than that reported by Fortaleza respondents, the difference in park use can't be explained by Panama City residents having more access to desired nonpark amenities near parks.
Which choice best describes the main idea of the text?
AEven though the study found that parks in Fortaleza are more likely to be close to other amenities than parks in Panama City are, Panama City has more amenities overall than Fortaleza does.BThe study's findings suggest that an increase in the number of amenities near city parks would likely increase park use in Panama City but not in Fortaleza.CThe study's finding that a greater proportion of residents use parks in Panama City than in Fortaleza is partly due to the greater prevalence of parks in Panama City.DAlthough the study found that a greater proportion of residents use parks in Panama City than in Fortaleza, that difference isn't due to greater access to amenities near parks in Panama City.Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: DAlthough the study found that a greater proportion of residents use parks in Panama City than in Fortaleza, that difference isn't due to greater access to amenities near parks in Panama City.
Option A is incorrect
The text compares amenities near parks, not the total number of amenities in each city, and it reports the Panama City figure as lower.
Option B is incorrect
The passage rules out an explanation; it makes no prediction about what would happen if amenities were added in either city.
Option C is incorrect
The number or prevalence of parks is never discussed. The text's whole move is to eliminate the amenity explanation, not to supply a new one.
Option D is correct
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Establish the two facts. Park use is higher in Panama City (53.5% vs 35.7%), and access to other desired amenities near parks is much lower in Panama City.
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The text's reasoning is elimination: if Panama City has less amenity access yet more park use, amenity access cannot be what explains the higher use.
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The main idea is therefore a ruling-out, not a positive explanation. Choice D captures both halves: Panama City has greater park use, and that difference is not due to nearby amenities.
Answer: D.
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