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Difficulty: EasyEvaluating Relevance for Adding or Deleting Content

The writer is considering deleting the underlined sentence from the following paragraph:

In 1869, Austria introduced the 'Correspondenz-Karte,' which is widely considered the world's first official postcard. Unlike letters, these cards did not require envelopes, making them a cheaper and faster way to send short messages. They quickly gained popularity across Europe, as millions of people embraced this convenient new form of communication. Many early postcards featured simple decorative borders or small illustrations of famous landmarks. The first postage stamps had been introduced in Great Britain in 1840, featuring the profile of Queen Victoria. By the late nineteenth century, the postcard craze had spread globally, transforming how people shared quick updates with friends and family.

Should the writer make this deletion?

  1. Yes, because it introduces details about the history of postage stamps that are irrelevant to the paragraph's focus on postcards.Answer
  2. B
    Yes, because it interrupts the paragraph's narrative about Austria with unrelated details about Great Britain.
  3. C
    No, because it provides essential context explaining how postcards were mailed during the nineteenth century.
  4. D
    No, because it explains the origin of the postage stamps that were required to mail the postcards.

Answer

Yes, because it introduces details about the history of postage stamps that are irrelevant to the paragraph's focus on postcards.
The correct option is correct because the paragraph describes the history, development, and spread of postcards. A detail about the 1840 introduction of British postage stamps is irrelevant to the development of postcards in the late nineteenth century and should be deleted.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Determine the main topic and focus of the paragraph.
The paragraph is focused on the introduction of the first official postcard in Austria and its subsequent design features and global popularity in the late nineteenth century.
Establishing the main focus is necessary to evaluate whether the underlined sentence supports that focus.
2
Analyze the content of the underlined sentence.
The underlined sentence states that the first postage stamps were introduced in Great Britain in 1840 and featured the profile of Queen Victoria.
Understanding the specific information provided in the sentence helps determine if it fits logically into the paragraph.
3
Evaluate the relevance of the sentence to the main focus.
Although both postcards and stamps relate to the mail system, the historical origin of the postage stamp is a separate topic that distracts from the paragraph's development of postcard history. Therefore, the sentence should be deleted.
Comparing the sentence to the paragraph's focus leads to the final decision to delete the sentence due to irrelevance.

Key Concept

Evaluating the relevance of supporting details to the central topic of a paragraph.
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Evaluating Relevance for Adding or Deleting Content

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