UPCAT Reading Comprehension practice question 1: Which statement best expresses the main idea of the passage?
Correct answer
D. Modernizing the fleet is justified, but the burden of paying for it is being misassigned.
The passage grants the case for replacement outright, then argues that the real question is who absorbs the cost. The cultural point and the safety point are each only one supporting element, not the main idea.
The Cost of Modernizing the Jeepney
Few objects carry as much civic meaning as the jeepney. Assembled from surplus military chassis after the war, it became the cheapest way for millions of commuters to reach work, and its hand-painted panels turned each unit into a moving signature of its owner.
The case for replacing the fleet is not hard to state. Older units burn diesel inefficiently, fail emissions standards, and lack the structural features that would protect passengers in a collision. A newer vehicle would cut both particulate pollution and injury rates.
Yet the arithmetic falls unevenly. A modern unit can cost twenty times what a driver earns in a year, and most drivers do not own the vehicle they operate. They rent it daily, surrender a fixed sum to the operator, and keep whatever fares remain. A financing scheme calculated against a stable monthly salary does not describe their situation at all.
The question, then, is not whether the fleet should change. It is who absorbs the cost of changing it. A policy that improves air quality while pushing thousands of drivers out of the trade has not solved a problem so much as relocated it onto the people least able to carry it.
The question
Which statement best expresses the main idea of the passage?
- Option A: Jeepneys should be preserved because of their cultural and historical importance.
- Option B: Older jeepneys are more dangerous to passengers than most commuters realize.
- Option C: Drivers should be given ownership of the vehicles they currently rent.
- Option D: Modernizing the fleet is justified, but the burden of paying for it is being misassigned.Correct
Why D is correct
The passage grants the case for replacement outright, then argues that the real question is who absorbs the cost. The cultural point and the safety point are each only one supporting element, not the main idea.
Why the other options are wrong
- A Jeepneys should be preserved because of their cultural and historical importance.
- The opening paragraph does establish cultural meaning, but the passage then concedes the case for replacement outright. This is a supporting detail, not the argument.
- B Older jeepneys are more dangerous to passengers than most commuters realize.
- True within the passage, but it appears as part of the case *for* modernisation, which the author accepts rather than disputes.
- C Drivers should be given ownership of the vehicles they currently rent.
- The passage describes the rental arrangement but never proposes transferring ownership.