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.
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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)___.

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.
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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)___.

Accepted Answer

A new kind of VARC question. The best way to place the missing sentence in the paragraph is to identify the position where the transition of ideas looks abrupt from the previous sentence to the next. The missing sentence would fit in that position.

Considering option 1, we see that there is a smooth transition of ideas from the previous sentence to the next. Never before has a population been exposed to so much information; yet it is not clear people today are more knowledgeable than their barely literate predecessors. So, we rule out option 1.

Considering option 2, we see again that the previous sentence is about access to new realms of knowledge and the transition from here to 'But such readily available knowledge...' is smooth.

In case of option 3 too, both the sentence before and the one after are about the negative effects of readily available knowledge.

The missing sentence would make best sense as the concluding sentence of the paragraph, as the paragraph itself is about how the Internet has proved to be both a blessing and a curse.

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The answer is 'Option 4'
Choice D is the correct answer.

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