Question

Use the space to objectively summarize the central idea of a section of The Hot Zone by Richard Preston.

Read the excerpt from The Hot Zone and the summary that follows it.

Half of this biocontainment operation was going to be news containment. C. J. Peters's comments to The Washington Post were designed to create an impression that the situation was under control, safe, and not all that interesting. C. J. was understating the gravity of the situation. But he could be very smooth when he wanted, and he used his friendliest voice with the reporters, assuring them over the telephone that there really was no problem, just kind of a routine technical situation. Somehow the reporters concluded that the sick monkeys had been "destroyed as a precaution" when in fact the nightmare, and the reason for troops, was that the animals hadn't been destroyed.
Summary of central idea: It was very important to keep the truth about this operation from the news.

What best describes this summary of the central idea?

It is a strong summary because it is subjective and provides the writer’s opinion about the paragraph’s central idea.
It is a strong summary because it is objective and accurately expresses the paragraph’s central idea.
It is a weak summary because it is subjective and does not provide the writer’s opinion about the paragraph’s central idea.
It is a weak summary because it is objective and does not accurately express the paragraph’s central idea.

Answer 1

The answer is: It is a strong summary because it is objective and accurately expresses the paragraph’s central idea.

This summary is strong because it accurately conveys the central idea of the passage, which is that it was important to keep the truth about the biocontainment operation from the news.

The summary is objective, meaning it does not include the writer’s opinion, but rather just sums up the main point of the passage.