Question

read the paragraph about activist wangari maathai. select the sentence that should be removed to improve the focus of the paragraph.
in 2004, kenyan environmental activist wangari maathai won the nobel peace prize. the award recognized, in part, her founding of the green belt movement (gbm) in the 1970s. at that time, forests in kenya were being cleared at alarming rates, leading to soil erosion and drought. in addition to these environmental effects, the destruction of forests caused families to lose vital access to firewood. with the trees gone, it became difficult for families to build fires. maathai and the gbm addressed these issues by working primarily with women farmers to plant clusters of trees across parts of their farmland. by the late 1980s, maathai had influenced several other african countries to adopt this approach to environmental conservation. over the next several decades, the gbm succeeded in planting roughly thirty million trees across the continent.

Explanation:

The paragraph focuses on Wangari Maathai, the Green Belt Movement, and environmental issues in Kenya/Africa. The sentence "In 2004, Kenyan environmental activist Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize. The award recognized, in part, her founding of the Green Belt Movement (GBM) in the 1970s." introduces the core subject and her key initiative, while the rest details the environmental context and GBM's work. The sentence "By the late 1980s, Maathai had influenced several other African countries to adopt this approach to environmental conservation." shifts focus to other African countries, which moves away from the primary focus of Maathai, GBM, and the Kenyan environmental context that anchors the paragraph. Removing this sentence tightens the focus to the central topic.

Answer:

By the late 1980s, Maathai had influenced several other African countries to adopt this approach to environmental conservation.