Question

Read the excerpt from The Hot Zone.

There she met Lieutenant Colonel Trotter, a stocky, dark-haired man whom Nancy had worked with for many years. They put on their inner gloves and taped their cuffs. Nancy put a pair of hearing protectors over her ears. She had started wearing them a while back, when people had begun to suspect that the roar of air in your suit might be loud enough to damage your hearing. They hauled on their space suits and sealed the Ziploc zippers. They edged around each other as they fiddled with their suits. People wearing biohazard space suits tend to step around one another like two wrestlers at the beginning of a match, watching the other person's every move, especially watching the hands to make sure they don't hold a sharp object. This cringing becomes instinctive.

Which best states the central idea of this excerpt?

.It is always necessary to work with a partner when dealing with unidentified substances.

.Extreme precautions must be taken when dealing with potentially hazardous materials.

.Scientists are well known for being overly cautious and for taking unnecessary safety measures.

.It is standard procedure to wear both space suits and hearing protectors in laboratories.

Answer 1

It is standard procedure to wear both space suits and hearing protectors in laboratories.

Step-by-step explanation:

In this excerpt, there is a description of how are Nancy and her colleagues being prepared for dealing with materials in a laboratory. Her dressing is described in the details. There are also comments connected to the explanation of why are they so cautious. Their preparation is the first step to insure themselves in a possibly dangerous situation. The writer uses allusion to give this excerpt a more detailed and colorful description of two people who are preparing to enter in laboratories. Wrestlers are used as symbols for fighting, but in this situation, they are showing concern for safety.