Critical reading – profiling today’s knitters The paragraph argues that knitting is popular across ages, places, and even genders, making it “incredibly difficult” to create an accurate profile to replace the old stereotype. What statement is best supported?

Introduction / Context:
The writer dismantles a narrow stereotype (an elderly woman with yarn basket) by showing the diversity of modern knitters across age, location, and gender, concluding that an accurate replacement profile would be “incredibly difficult.”

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Knitters may be 18, 28, 40, or 65; live in cities or suburbs; be college students, seniors, and even men.
• They knit in shops, cafés, dorms, and church halls.
• The range of traits is wide, so a single profile is hard.

Concept / Approach:
Generalize the author’s reasoning: profiling a group is practical only when members share identifiable common traits. The paragraph shows such commonality is lacking for modern knitters.

Step-by-Step Solution:
Recognize the central claim: great diversity → no single accurate profile.Convert to the supported principle: profiles require shared characteristics.Reject options about motives (simpler times), skill levels, or “record numbers,” none of which are stated.

Verification / Alternative check:
If a population is heterogeneous across key dimensions, any single stereotype will be inaccurate—this matches option C.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• A/E: Speculate about motives or “record” growth; not in text.
• B: The passage mentions groups and individual settings; it does not claim a shift to group activity.
• D: No claim about skill levels.

Common Pitfalls:
Picking an appealing but unstated social explanation instead of the text-based inference.

Final Answer:
creating an accurate profile of a particular type of person depends on the people in this group having traits and characteristics in common.