Practice mode Reading Comprehension

Which statement best expresses the main idea of the passage about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault?

Read the passage: Deep inside a mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, far north of the Arctic Circle, lies the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. Opened in 2008, it stores duplicate samples of seeds from crop collections held by gene banks around the world. The seeds are kept in sealed packets at around minus eighteen degrees Celsius, a temperature at which many can remain alive for decades or even centuries. The vault acts as a backup. If a national seed bank is damaged by war, natural disaster or simple equipment failure, the stored copies can be returned so that valuable crop varieties are not lost forever. The cold, remote location was chosen because the surrounding rock stays frozen naturally.

Correct answer C. It is a frozen safety store that protects the world's crop varieties from being lost.

Explanation

The passage describes the vault as a backup that keeps duplicate seeds frozen so that crop varieties are not lost, which is what option A states.

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Answer checked 11 October 2026 How we write and check questions

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Correct answer B. Without one, improvement caused by patients' expectations could be mistaken for the drug's effect.

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Correct answer D. Its lack of fear left it poorly prepared for the dangers that arrived with humans.

Open question

Which statement best expresses the main idea of the passage about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault?

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