Hey Student (I'm not sure what to call you...I was going to call you "Otter" - which is super cute by the way haha)!!

Again, you present a very thoughtful question. The skill/superpower that you need to develop (a little bit better) is the ability to turn the specific into the general (and vice versa). What this means is that, sometimes, you have to take the specific words given in the passage (in this case, the first two paragraphs) and turn that into the a summary of its main idea(s) (general).

So, to answer your question, even though the passage does say that researchers "have struggled with this topic for years," it doesn't make it the MAIN IDEA of these paragraphs. In fact, the very next part of the sentence says "but we may now be one step closer to a conclusive answer," which implies that the researchers are 'no longer struggling with this question' and that they have started to come up with a clear answer. Also, the next paragraph talks about the research study and presents information that begins to answer the question researchers have struggled with for years to answer. Hence, the main idea of the two paragraphs cannot be about the researchers' struggles.

Does that make sense? Hope so.  =)

The key takeaway: just because you see some words that match an answer choice doesn't make it the main idea.

If you can clearly grasp this explanation and apply this concept to future questions that relate to big picture, you'll be on your way to success!

Thanks!

Hey Student (I'm not sure what to call you...I was going to call you "Otter" - which is super cute by the way haha)!!

Again, you present a very thoughtful question. The skill/superpower that you need to develop (a little bit better) is the ability to turn the specific into the general (and vice versa). What this means is that, sometimes, you have to take the specific words given in the passage (in this case, the first two paragraphs) and turn that into the a summary of its main idea(s) (general).

So, to answer your question, even though the passage does say that researchers "have struggled with this topic for years," it doesn't make it the MAIN IDEA of these paragraphs. In fact, the very next part of the sentence says "but we may now be one step closer to a conclusive answer," which implies that the researchers are 'no longer struggling with this question' and that they have started to come up with a clear answer. Also, the next paragraph talks about the research study and presents information that begins to answer the question researchers have struggled with for years to answer. Hence, the main idea of the two paragraphs cannot be about the researchers' struggles.

Does that make sense? Hope so.  =)

The key takeaway: just because you see some words that match an answer choice doesn't make it the main idea.

If you can clearly grasp this explanation and apply this concept to future questions that relate to big picture, you'll be on your way to success!

Thanks!