Question

Difficulty: EasyEvaluating Relevance for Adding or Deleting Content

In 1783, Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne Montgolfier launched the first manned hot air balloon in Paris. The balloon, constructed of paper and silk, rose over three thousand feet into the air and carried its passengers safely across the city. Today, hot air ballooning is a popular recreational activity and competitive sport worldwide. The success of this flight marked the beginning of human aviation, inspiring subsequent inventors to develop hydrogen balloons and gliders.

The writer is considering deleting the underlined sentence from the passage. Should the sentence be kept or deleted?

  1. A
    Kept, because it provides necessary context about hot air balloons, which are the main subject of the passage.
  2. B
    Kept, because it explains how the Montgolfier brothers' invention evolved into modern competitive sports.
  3. Deleted, because it interrupts the paragraph's focus on the historical event of the first balloon flight with an irrelevant detail about modern recreation.Answer
  4. D
    Deleted, because it contradicts the paragraph's assertion that the first flight was a success.

Answer

The underlined sentence should be deleted because it interrupts the paragraph's focus on the historical event of the first balloon flight with an irrelevant detail about modern recreation.
The sentence should be deleted because it disrupts the historical narrative of the 1783 flight by introducing modern, irrelevant details about hot air ballooning as a hobby or sport today.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the primary topic and focus of the paragraph.
The paragraph focus is the historical event of the Montgolfier brothers' first hot air balloon flight in 1783 and its immediate impact on early human aviation.
Establishing a baseline focus allows the reader to determine if the underlined sentence contributes to or deviates from the main narrative.
2
Analyze the content of the underlined sentence.
The underlined sentence describes modern hot air ballooning as a popular recreational activity and competitive sport today.
Determining what information the underlined sentence introduces is necessary to evaluate its relevance.
3
Evaluate whether the sentence should be kept or deleted based on paragraph relevance, and select the option with the correct reasoning.
The sentence should be deleted because modern recreation is irrelevant to the 1783 historical event. The option recommending deletion due to interrupting the historical focus with modern details is correct.
Choosing the correct decision and logical justification leads to the correct answer.

Key Concept

Evaluating Relevance for Adding or Deleting Content
Estimated Time:45s
Rate this question