Reading ComprehensionDifficulty: Hard

PT147 S3 P1 Q3 Explanation

The Importance of Fire Management

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Passage

In the last half-century, firefighters in North America have developed a powerful system for fighting wildfires using modern technology. But at the same time, foresters and ecologists are increasingly aware that too much firefighting can be worse than none at all. Over the millennia, many forest ecosystems have evolved in such a interval between fires could be as short as 5 years and rarely extended beyond 25 years.

If fires are kept out of forests, however, deadwood and other fuels build up; then, when fire is sparked by lightning or some other cause, what results is a fire so large that it leaves total devastation. Such fires often kill off wildlife that might escape low-intensity fires, and they also reach eliminate fires; land management policies should recognize the essential role that fire plays in many ecosystems.

Fire behavior depends on the complex interaction of three factors—topography, weather, and fuel—and since topography is fixed and weather is unpredictable, fuel is the only element that land managers can control. Land managers should therefore focus their efforts on fuel. A new kind of wildfire management that is designed to simulate the needed. When wildfires inevitably occur, they will be more easily controlled and do much less damage.

What this question is testing

Add to the Passage

Anticipate

This is an "Add to the Passage" question, so step back and ask: where is the paragraph going, and what tone does the author keep throughout?

The third paragraph builds out a hopeful plan — selective harvesting, prescribed burns, maintenance burns — and ends by saying future wildfires will be "more easily controlled and do much less damage." But the author has been careful from the start: fires are something to manage, not eliminate. So a closing sentence that completes this paragraph should land somewhere in that same balanced register.

Goal

Looking for an answer that adds a sensible caveat without leaving the author's scope or pushing the tone in the wrong direction. Common traps to watch for:

Answers that bring in topics the passage never discussed (homes near forests, costs, foresters' resistance)

Answers that are too pessimistic — the passage isn't saying the plan is doomed

Answers that take a side jab at timber companies or politics — the passage isn't making that argument

Reading along? Open the full official question in LawHub — we show a fragment here and keep the reasoning in our own words.

The question
3.

Which one of the following sentences would most logically complete the last paragraph

Answer choices

  1. Out of Scope1% picked this

    However, if homes were not built in such close proximity to forests, the damage to developed property

    The passage never discusses homes, residential development, or damage to property. Its focus is the ecological consequences of suppressing fire — wildlife loss, destruction of centuries-old trees, topsoil erosion. A closing sentence about home placement would shift the topic away from the paragraph's subject (fuel management).

  2. Contradicted25% picked this

    Unfortunately, until foresters recognize the dangers posed by excess fuel in forests, these proposals are likely to meet with

    P1 explicitly says that "foresters and ecologists are increasingly aware that too much firefighting can be worse than none at all." That is exactly the recognition this answer says is still missing. The premise of (B) — that foresters don't yet recognize the danger of excess fuel — directly contradicts the passage.

  3. Correct68% picked this

    But even with these policies, which require some years to achieve their intended effects, large, devastating fires will remain a

    Why this is right

    This is exactly the kind of measured caveat the paragraph calls for. The plan just laid out — selective harvesting, prescribed burns, maintenance burns at 15–20-year intervals — needs time to work. The "But" pivots cleanly off the upbeat sentence about future fires being "more easily controlled," and the qualification (large fires will remain a near-term threat) fits the author's balanced, cautious-optimist tone throughout.

    Skill tested: Add to the Passage · how this choice captures the passage's function is the move to repeat next time.

  4. Unsupported2% picked this

    Yet, because smaller trees will likely yield less profit for timber companies, the ecological benefits of the new plans must be weighed

    The passage actually says the opposite of (D)'s setup: when introducing selective timber harvesting it notes that "markets for this smaller material do exist." It does not raise the question of weighing economic costs against ecological benefits. (D) introduces a tradeoff the author never engages with.

  5. Out of Scope5% picked this

    But given the large financial resources needed to operate a prescribed fire management system, the chances of such policies

    The passage does not discuss the financial resources required to operate prescribed fire management or the political likelihood of these policies being adopted. Costs and implementation feasibility are simply not topics in the passage. Beyond being out of scope, (E)'s pessimism cuts directly against the paragraph's closing line — that future wildfires "will be more easily controlled." The author is forecasting that the plan will work, not that it's unlikely to be adopted.

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