Question

Which of the following states the central idea of the second paragraph?

Yet so vain is man, and so blinded by his vanity, that no writer, up to the very end of the nineteenth century, expressed any idea that intelligent life might have developed there far, or indeed at all, beyond its earthly level. Nor was it generally understood that since Mars is older than our earth, with scarcely a quarter of the superficial area and remoter from the sun, it necessarily follows that it is not only more distant from time's beginning but nearer its end.

-Humans were too proud to think that life could exist elsewhere.
-Intelligent life has been continuously developing around the universe.
-The end of the nineteenth century was lacking in intelligent life.
-Writers did not write books about the inhabitants of Mars.

Answer 1

I believe that it is A. Humans were too proud to think that life could exist elsewhere.

Answer 2

Answer: A) Humans were too proud to think that life could exist elsewhere.

Explanation: In the given paragraph we can see the description of how in the nineteenth century, no one wrote about the possibility of the development of intelligent life in other planets. From the given options, the statement that represents the central idea of the paragraph, is the corresponding to option A: Humans were too proud to think that life could exist elsewhere, we can see that in the phrase "Yet so vain is man, and so blinded by his vanity, that no writer, up to the very end of the nineteenth century, expressed any idea that intelligent life might have developed there far, or indeed at all, beyond its earthly level."