Which choice best states the main idea of the passage about the Great Library?
The Great Library at Alexandria is often imagined as a single grand building destroyed in one dramatic fire. Historians, however, describe a slower story. Funding declined under later rulers, scholars left the city, and scrolls that were not recopied crumbled with age. Blaming one blaze, they argue, makes for a better tale but a worse explanation.
Answer and explanation
Correct answer: B. The library declined gradually rather than through a single fire.
- Step 1: Identify the central argument: the passage contrasts the myth of a single catastrophic fire with historical reality.
- Step 2: Summarize the findings: historians describe a gradual decline due to funding cuts and neglect over centuries.
Answer
The library declined gradually rather than through a single fire.
Why not the others: The text affirms the library was a real institution and was not destroyed by an earthquake.
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