While researching a topic, a student has taken the following notes:
● Ulaanbaatar is the capital of Mongolia.
● The cityʼs population is 907,802.
● Ulaanbaatar contains 31.98 percent of Mongoliaʼs population.
● Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam.
● The cityʼs population is 7,781,631.
● Hanoi contains 8.14 percent of Vietnamʼs population.
The student wants to emphasize the relative sizes of the two capitalsʼ populations. Which choice most effectively uses information from the given sentences to emphasize the relative sizes of the two capitalsʼ populations?
Explanation
Answer: 3) Even though Hanoi (population 7,781,631) is larger than Ulaanbaatar (population 907,802), Ulaanbaatar accounts for more of its country's population.
Goal: Emphasize the relative sizes of the two capitals' populations.
Why? Relative comparison requires showing how they relate. Choice 3 compares both absolute size and percentage of national population.
Traps:
- A) Lists populations → no relative comparison
- B) Percentages without context → hard to compare
- D) Lists populations → no relative comparison