There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
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) ___ .
Sentence: Having made citizens more and less knowledgeable than their predecessors, the Internet has proved to be both a blessing and a curse.
There is a sentence that is missing in the paragraph below. Look at the paragraph and decide where (option 1, 2, 3, or 4) the following sentence would best fit.
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) ___ .
Sentence: Having made citizens more and less knowledgeable than their predecessors, the Internet has proved to be both a blessing and a curse.
Solution
From passage: "Contemporary advances in technology offered more serious and inquisitive students access to realms of knowledge previously unimaginable... But 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"
Thought process: The paragraph shows two sides of technology -> first the good (helps serious students) -> then the bad (leads students away from study, reinforces opinions) -> so we need a sentence that wraps up both sides
The missing sentence talks about making people "more and less knowledgeable" and calls internet "both a blessing and a curse" -> this is a perfect summary of the entire argument
🔴 Option 1 -> too early -> the paragraph hasn't explained the blessing and curse idea yet, so this conclusion makes no sense here
🔴 Option 2 -> interrupts flow -> the paragraph is building up the positive side, but this sentence jumps to conclusions before explaining the negative side
🔴 Option 3 -> partial fit -> comes after some negatives are mentioned, but the paragraph continues with more negatives, so it's not the complete picture yet
🟢 Option 4 -> perfect summary -> comes after all the positives and negatives are explained, ties everything together as a final conclusion
The sentence works like a conclusion -> it only makes sense after we've seen both the good and bad sides explained in detail.