Improving Paragraphs Question

Test Preparation SAT Preparation
1

<p>(1) In the history of science, there are some discoveries that nobody can forget, one of them is when Copernicus proved that the Earth revolves around the Sun. (2) The scientists who made these groundbreaking discoveries must be among the smartest people of all time. (3) It’s amazing that they could even come up with the ideas for their discoveries. (4) Much less go out and prove them. (5) But even the world’s smartest people aren’t perfect.</p>

<pre><code>(6) Before Copernicus came along, people believed that the sun and the other planets circled around the Earth. (7) The models people used to show that the Earth was the center of the universe had stood the test of time: they were 1500 years old! (8) It’s hard to believe anyone could overturn 1500 years of scientific teaching. (9) I know I couldn’t. (10) But astronomers today can see that Copernicus’s actual calculations were wrong. (11) He was correct in general, but he had trouble with the details. (12) The same thing is true of John Dalton, who founded modern atomic theory. (13) The fact that these scientists are so celebrated, despite their flaws, just shows how groundbreaking their new ideas actually were. (14) Dalton’s ideas were incredibly powerful and influential, but he used the wrong mathematical formulas.
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<p>Which of the following sentences would be most logical to insert before sentence 6?
(A) Take Copernicus, for example.
(B) Copernicus was a Polish astronomer.
(C) Many scientists led unhappy lives.
(D) Famous scientists, politicians, and military leaders have all made mistakes.
(E) Copernicus was more intelligent than most scientists today.</p>

<p>I chose D, although I didn't feel entirely satisfied with the decision. Atleast it sounds better than Choice A, which apparently is the answer. The second paragraph starts off by criticizing other people, people who preceded Copernicus. It criticizes how people left a model live for 1500 years when it was wrong. How can "Take Copernicus, for example" be relevant to the author's criticism of people that existed before he did?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>(1) In the history of science, there are some discoveries that nobody can forget, one of them is when Copernicus proved that the Earth revolves around the Sun. (2) The scientists who made these groundbreaking discoveries must be among the smartest people of all time. (3) It’s amazing that they could even come up with the ideas for their discoveries. (4) Much less go out and prove them. (5) But even the world’s smartest people aren’t perfect.</p>

<p>(6) Before Copernicus came along, people believed that the sun and the other planets circled around the Earth. (7) The models people used to show that the Earth was the center of the universe had stood the test of time: they were 1500 years old! (8) It’s hard to believe anyone could overturn 1500 years of scientific teaching. (9) I know I couldn’t. (10) But astronomers today can see that Copernicus’s actual calculations were wrong</p>

<p>If you’ll look carefully sentence 5 says " But even the world’s smartest people aren’t perfect."
And then sentence 10 says “But astronomers today can see that Copernicus’s actual calculations were wrong”</p>

<p>according to this logic you can see that Copernicus is an example of someone that was very smart but he wasn’t perfect, so that examplifies sentence 5 and matches the rest of the paragraph.
And sentence 12 further supports that by using “The same thing” which means they are giving another example, so that means that Copernicus was the 1st example.</p>

<p>On another note, i’d probably choose D as well lol :P</p>