Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow. Just as the…
2025
Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow.
Just as the oceans opened up a new world for clipper ships and Yankee traders, space holds enormous potential for commerce today. The International Space Station (ISS) took 10 years and more than 30 missions to assemble. It is the result of unprecedented scientific and engineering collaboration among five space agencies representing 15 countries. The space station is approximately the size of a football field: a 460-ton, permanently crewed platform orbiting 250 miles above Earth. It is about four times as large as the Russian space station Mir and five times as large as the U.S. Skylab. The idea of a space station was once science fiction, existing only in the imagination until it became clear in the 1940s that construction of such a structure might be attainable by our nation. As the Space Age began in the 1950s, designs of 'space planes' and stations dominated popular media. The first rudimentary station was created in 1969 by the linking of two Russian Soyuz vehicles in space, followed by other stations and developments in space technology until construction began on the ISS in 1998, aided by the first reusable spacecraft ever developed: the American shuttles. Until recently, U.S. research space onboard the ISS had been reserved for mostly government initiatives, but new opportunities for commercial and academic use of the ISS are now available, facilitated by the ISS National Lab.
Identify the most suitable title for the passage.
- A.
ISS - A Solid Foundation for New Space Tourism
- B.
ISS - A Stunning Truth about New Space Research
- C.
ISS - A Past History of International Space Initiatives
- D.
ISS - A New Avenue for Commerce and Research
Show answer & explanation
Correct answer: D
Concept: The best title for a passage is the phrase that captures its overall controlling idea — the point that the opening and the closing sentences both frame, and that every paragraph in between supports — not a detail confined to only one part of the passage, and not an idea the passage never actually states.
Application: The passage opens with an analogy — oceans once opened trade for ships, and "space holds enormous potential for commerce today" — which sets the commercial theme immediately. The middle paragraph then supplies supporting facts: the ISS's scale (a 460-ton platform the size of a football field), its international collaboration (five agencies, fifteen countries), and how it was built over time (a 1940s idea, 1950s "Space Age" designs, the first Soyuz linkup in 1969, and ISS construction starting in 1998, aided by reusable shuttles). The closing sentence returns to the same theme: "new opportunities for commercial and academic use of the ISS are now available." The scale, collaboration, and build history are presented as background for that opening-to-closing shift toward commercial and academic access.
Cross-check: Testing each option against "does it match what the opening and closing sentences both frame, without being narrower or broader than the passage supports":
"A Solid Foundation for New Space Tourism" — the passage never mentions tourism, sightseeing, or public travel to the station; its vocabulary is commerce, collaboration, and research access.
"A Stunning Truth about New Space Research" — the passage states the shift in research access as a dated, incremental change ("until recently... but new opportunities... are now available"), not as a single startling finding, and it gives equal space to the station's history and its commercial dimension.
"A Past History of International Space Initiatives" — the build timeline occupies only the passage's middle section; the opening and closing sentences both point past history toward present-day commercial opportunity.
"A New Avenue for Commerce and Research" — this is the only option that matches both the opening line ("space holds enormous potential for commerce today") and the closing line ("new opportunities for commercial and academic use... are now available"), with the scale/history details serving as supporting evidence for it.
Result: The title that spans the full passage — opening and closing alike — rather than only one internal section is "ISS - A New Avenue for Commerce and Research".