Question

water, water everywhere?
houston, texas
january 11, 2009: just outside houston, texas, is a mission field of waist-high grass, buzzing bees, and palm - size butterflies. this variant of a coastal prairie, right next to the nation’s fourth - largest city, seems to be waiting to be piped up and developed by a suburban - pleasing business. but rather than chewing up the land, next through its unique waters than 360
which passage from the article would be most important to include in a summary?
a. just outside houston, texas, is a mission field of waist - high grass, buzzing bees, and palm - size butterflies.
b. thomas lyon is a professor at the university of michigan. lyon researches connections between industry and the environment.
c. each day, 200 million hours are spent hauling water to communities that have no plumbing. that’s more hours than all employees at wal - mart, ups, mcdonald’s, ibm, target, and kroger work in a week.
d. with their bottom line in mind, many beverage corporations have partnered with environmental groups to conserve water

Explanation:

To determine the most important passage for a summary, we need to identify which option conveys a key point about the article's main topic (likely related to water and its impact or management). Option C provides a significant statistic about the time spent hauling water, which is a crucial detail related to water access issues, making it essential for a summary. Options A (descriptive scene), B (professor's background), and D (beverage corps' actions) are less central to the core topic compared to C's statistic on water - related labor.

Answer:

C. Each day, 200 million hours are spent hauling water to communities that have no plumbing. That's more hours than all employees at Wal - Mart, UPS, McDonald's, IBM, Target, and Kroger work in a week.