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Difficulty: EasyEvaluating Relevance for Adding or Deleting Content

In 1783, the Montgolfier brothers, Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Étienne, made history by launching the first passenger-carrying hot air balloon in Versailles, France. The balloon, constructed of paper and silk, carried a sheep, a duck, and a rooster to test the safety of flight in the upper atmosphere. Versailles, famous for its grand palace, had served as the seat of French political power since 1682. The successful eight-minute flight proved that living creatures could survive the ascent, paving the way for the first human balloonists later that year.

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

  1. A
    Kept, because it provides essential context about the location of the balloon launch.
  2. B
    Kept, because it explains why Versailles was chosen as the site for this scientific demonstration.
  3. Deleted, because it interrupts the paragraph's focus on the balloon flight with unrelated details about the history of Versailles.Answer
  4. D
    Deleted, because it contradicts the paragraph's claim that the balloon flight was a scientific success.

Answer

Deleted, because it interrupts the paragraph's focus on the balloon flight with unrelated details about the history of Versailles.
The correct option is the one stating the sentence should be deleted because it interrupts the paragraph's focus. The paragraph focuses on the pioneering hot air balloon flight of the Montgolfier brothers. The historical and political background of Versailles, while factual, is irrelevant to the scientific and narrative details of the aviation experiment and should be removed.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the main focus of the paragraph.
The paragraph describes the hot air balloon launch by the Montgolfier brothers in 1783, including the construction of the balloon, the animals carried as passengers, and the success of the test flight.
Understanding the paragraph's topic is necessary to evaluate the relevance of any single sentence.
2
Evaluate the relevance of the underlined sentence to the paragraph's main focus.
The underlined sentence discusses the political history of Versailles as the seat of French power since 1682. This detail does not contribute to the narrative of the balloon flight or its scientific significance.
This helps determine whether the sentence should be kept or deleted.
3
Choose the option that states the correct action (delete) and provides the correct rhetorical reason.
The sentence should be deleted because it introduces irrelevant information about Versailles, interrupting the focus on the aviation event.
Only one option correctly identifies the action and logical justification.

Key Concept

Evaluating Relevance for Adding or Deleting Content
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Topics

Evaluating Relevance for Adding or Deleting Content

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