Question

There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide in which blank (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit. Sentence: Having made citizens more and less knowledgeable than their predecessors, the Internet has proved to be both a blessing and a curse. Paragraph: Never before has a population, nearly all of whom has enjoyed at a least a secondary school education, been exposed to so much information, whether in newspapers and magazines or through YouTube, Google, and Facebook. ____(1) ____. Yet it is not clear that people today are more knowledgeable than their barely literate predecessors. Contemporary advances in technology offered more serious and inquisitive students access to realms of knowledge previously unimaginable and unavailable. ____ (2) ____. But such readily available knowledge leads many more students away from serious study, the reading of actual texts, and toward an inability to write effectively and grammatically. ____ (3) ____. It has let people choose sources that reinforce their opinions rather than encouraging them to question inherited beliefs. ____ (4) ____.

• A. Option 1
• B. Option 2
• C. Option 3
• D. Option 4

Answer 1

The Correct Option is D

This is a challenging question, though the initial elimination is straightforward. Position 1 is incorrect because the subsequent sentence beginning with the conjunction 'yet' doesn't properly contrast with the given sentence. Position 2 also fails to justify the contrast with the following sentence. Positions 3 or 4 could be correct, but there needs to be a justification. The given sentence seems more of a conclusion, especially with the phrase 'the internet has proved to both a blessing and a curse,' giving it a concluding tone. Thus, position 4 is the right placement for the sentence. The pronoun 'it' in the penultimate sentence doesn't refer to the noun 'internet' but instead to what has been stated in the sentence before it: '...such readily available knowledge leads many more students away from serious study...''It has let people choose sources that reinforce their opinions rather than encouraging them to question inherited beliefs.'