(1) Until the 1940s, most Americans were born and died at home. (2) Births and deaths happened when they happened, often without medical intervention. (3) If a baby was too premature or defective, or if a seriously ill person was dying, there was little the family doctor could do about it other than to offer comfort. (4) Today, most Americans are born and die in hospitals under the supervision of medical personnel who sometimes decide to keep them alive long beyond the point at which they would normally have died. (5) Patients can be hooked up for days, months, or years to machines that sustain their lives. (6) This step may be taken even if they are in constant pain or permanently comatose. (7) Obviously, technology has greatly changed how we are born and die.

Question

(1) Until the 1940s, most Americans were born and died at home.  (2) Births and deaths happened when they happened, often without medical intervention.  (3) If a baby was too premature or defective, or if a seriously ill person was dying, there was little the family doctor could do about it other than to offer comfort.  (4) Today, most Americans are born and die in hospitals under the supervision of medical personnel who sometimes decide to keep them alive long beyond the point at which they would normally have died.  (5) Patients can be hooked up for days, months, or years to machines that sustain their lives.  (6) This step may be taken even if they are in constant pain or permanently comatose.  (7) Obviously, technology has greatly changed how we are born and die.

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

The passage presents a historical and contemporary contrast about where births and deaths occur and how medical technology influences end-of-life care. 
Sentence 1: 'Until the 1940s, most Americans were born and died at home.' This is a historical claim; while many people did die at home in the past, the blanket statement may overgeneralize regional and socio-economic variation. It sets up the context for the later comparison but isn’t the main point about modern changes. 
Sentence 2: 'Births and deaths happened when they happened, often without medical intervention.' This emphasizes the lack of medical systems and scheduling around life events in the past, which aligns with historical reality but may oversimplify the variability across communities. It supports the contrast but alone doesn’t capture the modern shift. 
Sentence 3: 'If a baby was too premature or defective, or if a seriously ill person was dying, there was little the family doctor could do about it other than to offer comfort.' This underscores limited medical capabilities and the role of physicians as comfort providers rather than life-extending interventions, highlighting technological limitations of the era. It’s accurate for illustrating past constraints, yet not the core comparison to today’s practices. 
Sentence 4: 'Today, most Americans are born and die in hospitals under the supervision of medical personnel who sometimes decide to keep them alive long beyond the point at which they would normally have died.' This statement outlines a key shift: institutional birth and death, with aggressive life-sustaining treatment decisions. It marks the contrast with past practices and introduces the ethical and medical dynamics of modern care. 
Sentence 5: 'Patients can be hooked up for days, months, or years to machines that sustain their lives.' This continues the critique of modern technology’s reach, illustrating the potential for prolonged life through mechanical means. It directly supports the idea of extended survival beyond natural trajectories. 
Sentence 6: 'This step may be taken even if they are in constant pain or permanently comatose.' This adds nuance to Sentence 5 by acknowledging that life-sustaining measures can persist despite suffering or severe nonrecovery, reinforcing the complexities of contemporary care. 
Sentence 7: 'Obviously, technology has greatly changed how we are born and die.' This concluding statement synthesizes the previous points into a broad, overarching claim: technology has transformed birth and death experiences. It encapsulates the main takeaway that the modern era differs markedly from the past due to medical technology. 
Taken together, the set of statements builds toward Sentence 7 as the central thesis: technology has fundamentally altered the way we are born and die. The earlier sentences support this by describing past conditions and present practices, while Sentences 5 and 6 provide examples of life-sustaining technologies and their ethical implications, culminating in the assertion in Sentence 7. 
Why Sentence 7 is the most accurate summary in this context: it explicitly ties together the historical shift (from home, unassisted or minimally assisted births and deaths to hospital-based, technologically mediated processes) into a single evaluative claim. The other sentences describe aspects of this shift or its background, but Sentence 7 captures the overarching theme of the entire passage. 
Common misconceptions to avoid: assuming that all aspects of modern care are beneficial or that technology always leads to longer quality life. The passage acknowledges both prolongation and potential suffering, making Sentence 7 a descriptive acknowledgment of change rather than a value judgment about its desirability. 
In summary, Sentence 7 serves as the synthesis of the passage, presenting the core conclusion that technology has greatly transformed birth and death, with the preceding sentences providing the historical context and concrete examples of that transformation.

6252-12164-ESOL-0353 Practice Quiz: Ch. 2 Main Idea

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