Examkin

Question

Difficulty: MediumIdentifying Main Ideas and Supporting Details

Across the windswept plains of the Bolivian Altiplano, smallholder farmers face severe harvest losses due to sudden unseasonal frost and shifting precipitation patterns. In response, a regional agricultural collective has established a hybrid meteorological network that integrates traditional ecological forecasting—such as observing the nesting behavior of local waterfowl and the budding of native shrubs—with distributed solar-powered micro-climate sensors. While centralized government satellite models provide broad regional projections, their coarse spatial resolution often fails to capture sudden temperature drops within isolated micro-valleys. By feeding real-time hyper-local sensor data into communal radio broadcasts alongside elder environmental observations, the initiative delivers actionable frost warnings four to six hours before freezing thresholds occur. Field evaluations over three consecutive growing seasons demonstrated a 35 percent reduction in tuber blight and frost damage across participating communities. Ultimately, the project illustrates that bridging ancestral observational wisdom with accessible digital monitoring creates a resilient, community-governed defense against climatic volatility.

Based on the text, which of the following best expresses the central thesis of the article?

  1. A
    Participating agricultural communities achieved a thirty-five percent reduction in crop losses across three consecutive growing seasons.
  2. B
    Government satellite forecasting programs will soon be completely phased out in favor of localized communal radio networks across South America.
  3. Integrating ancestral environmental observations with localized sensor technology establishes an effective, community-managed defense against climate hazards.Answer
  4. D
    Ancestral ecological wisdom has proven fundamentally superior to modern digital devices for managing agricultural micro-climates.

Answer

Integrating ancestral environmental observations with localized sensor technology establishes an effective, community-managed defense against climate hazards.
The correct answer accurately expresses the central thesis by synthesizing the core theme of the passage: uniting ancestral environmental indicators with localized digital sensors creates an effective, community-led system to mitigate climate-related agricultural risks. This concept is introduced in the opening paragraphs and affirmed in the concluding sentence.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the primary subject and central initiative described in the passage.
The text describes an agricultural collective in the Bolivian Altiplano that merges traditional ecological observations with micro-climate sensor data to issue early frost warnings.
Determining the overall subject helps isolate the core argument from background information and technical details.
2
Analyze the concluding statement to identify the author's overarching takeaway.
The final sentence emphasizes that bridging ancestral wisdom with accessible digital monitoring builds a resilient, community-governed defense against climatic volatility.
In journalistic and analytical writing, the central thesis is frequently synthesized and reinforced in the concluding lines.
3
Distinguish the overarching thesis from secondary supporting details and unsubstantiated inferences.
The thirty-five percent damage reduction is evidence of efficacy, and the limitations of satellite models provide context, whereas the hybrid framework itself constitutes the primary claim.
The correct main idea must encapsulate the entire scope of the text rather than an isolated metric or an overextended prediction.

Key Concept

Identifying the main idea of an analytical passage by distinguishing overarching claims from supporting statistical evidence and overextended inferences.
Rate this question

Topics

Identifying Main Ideas and Supporting Details

More questions from this topic