Question 79·Easy·Central Ideas and Details
Astronomer Dr. Maya Hernandez faced a challenge: her telescope captured millions of images of distant stars each night, far more than her small research team could analyze quickly. To solve this problem, she launched an online citizen-science project that let volunteers around the world classify the images. By combining thousands of viewers’ careful observations, Hernandez’s team identified unusual stellar phenomena months sooner than traditional methods would have allowed.
According to the text, why was Hernandez’s decision to involve citizen scientists important?
For "According to the text, why" questions, first underline the key action (here, involving citizen scientists) and then find the sentence that explains its result or impact. Put that result into your own simple words, then eliminate any choices that (1) introduce ideas the passage never mentions (like cost or new technology) or (2) contradict the passage. Finally, choose the option that matches both the specific details and the cause-and-effect relationship stated in the text, not just one piece of it.
Hints
Locate where citizen scientists are mentioned
Reread the sentences that start with "To solve this problem" and "By combining thousands of viewers’ careful observations." Those lines explain why involving citizen scientists mattered.
Think about the original problem
What challenge did Hernandez have at the beginning of the passage, and how did having many volunteers help solve that specific challenge?
Look for effects, not just actions
Notice the phrase "months sooner than traditional methods would have allowed." What does this tell you about the impact of including citizen scientists?
Step-by-step Explanation
Restate what the question is asking
The question asks: According to the text, why was Hernandez’s decision to involve citizen scientists important? That means you must identify the reason (the effect or result) given in the passage for including citizen scientists, not just what they did.
Find the key sentences about citizen scientists
Look at the part that describes what Hernandez did to solve her problem:
"To solve this problem, she launched an online citizen-science project that let volunteers around the world classify the images. By combining thousands of viewers’ careful observations, Hernandez’s team identified unusual stellar phenomena months sooner than traditional methods would have allowed."
These sentences explain both what the volunteers did and what result that had.
Summarize the role and impact in your own words
From these lines, you can summarize:
- Volunteers around the world classified the images, so they were actively helping with the research.
- Because there were thousands of viewers, the team identified unusual stellar phenomena months sooner than usual.
So the decision was important because it brought in many helpers and made the discoveries much faster.
Match your summary to the best answer choice
Now compare your summary with the answer choices:
- The correct choice must mention volunteers contributing and the fact that this sped up discoveries.
Choice A) It allowed volunteers to contribute to the research and greatly accelerated the pace of discoveries. matches both key ideas from the passage: volunteers help with classifying images, and their work leads to finding unusual phenomena much sooner. Therefore, A is the correct answer.