#1 - Main Point

[Administrator]

Complete Question Explanation

The correct answer choice is (C).

Answer choice (A):

Answer choice (B):

Answer choice (C): This is the correct answer choice.

Answer choice (D):

Answer choice (E):

This explanation is still in progress. Please post any questions below!

[DorrieN]

Hi! I was having quite a difficult time with this question.

I understand why C is correct, but I also could see A and E being correct. Can you explain why they aren't? Or why C is MORE correct?

[Luke Haqq]

Hi DorrieN!

Happy to address answer choices (A), (E), and (C).

Answer choices (A) and (E) are both too narrow. Being too narrow is often the form that an incorrect answer will take on main point questions. Incorrect answers will often address only part of the passage while failing to account for the function one or more of its paragraphs.

For both (A) and (E), most of the passage isn't about scholarly disagreement but rather is about the "large body of evidence for the routine practice of burning" (lines 16-17). Scholarly disagreement seems confined to the first paragraph. The second and third paragraphs are presenting evidence of the author's views regarding this disagreement--i.e., the author's view that the evidence points to routine controlled burning--rather than these paragraphs being focused on disagreements among scholars.

Answer choice (C) includes what is missing in answer choices (A) and (E). Answer choice (C) states that the main point is: "Although some scholars minimize the scope and importance of the burning of forests engaged in by native populations of North and South America before 1492, evidence of the frequency and impact of such burning is actually quite extensive." The clause making up the first half of the sentence captures the scholarly disagreement in the first paragraph. But the remainder of the sentence also brings in the other two paragraphs, which are providing evidence of controlled burning.