Question 33
MediumOriginal questionIn most drawings of the Earth and the Moon, the two sit close together on the page, like a ball and a smaller ball beside it. Those drawings are . The Moon is much farther away than most people .
On , it is about 384,400 km from the Earth. That is roughly thirty Earths lined up side by side. Because we can see the Moon so clearly without a telescope, it seems close, but thirty Earths is a very long way.
The word "average" matters here. The Moon's path around the Earth is not a perfect circle, so its distance changes. At its farthest, it is almost thirty-two Earths away; at its closest, between twenty-eight and twenty-nine.
You can see the real gap for yourself. If the Earth were the size of a basketball, the Moon would be about the size of a tennis ball. To show the distance between them correctly, you would have to place the tennis ball more than seven metres away from the basketball, which is a good deal farther than any drawing in a textbook.
Why does the writer say "The word 'average' matters here"?
Show the answer and explanation
Correct answer: D
Explanation
The next sentences explain that the Moon's path is not a perfect circle, so its distance varies between about twenty-eight and thirty-two Earths.
The figure of 384,400 km is only the average of these changing distances.
Worth noting
The sentence is about the changing distance, not about the Moon's size.
- Concept
- Understanding why a writer stresses a word
- Typical timeTypical
- 45 s
- Your timeYours
- —
Ten questions from Factual passages, at your own pace.