1.
[RI.2]
PART A: Which of the following best describes a central idea of the text?
Students are susceptible to all sorts of outside influences.
B. Students, teenagers especially, always desire the approval of their peers,
whether consciously or unconsciously.
The pressure to conform or 'be popular' with one's peers may negatively affect
their choices in education.
It is considered undesirable, or 'uncool', to want to better oneself in school, and
therefore many students conform to this idea in order to gain popularity.

The option that best describes a central idea of the text is "The pressure to conform or ‘be popular’ with one’s peers may negatively affect "

Explanation:

The article "Students’ Work Ethic Affected by Peer Groups, Desire to Be Popular " By Shankar Vedantam presents the results of a social experiment performed among some students to monitor their reactions when they have to face peer pressure as they are offered an opportunity of becoming better academically speaking, and how the results projected negative reactions from some of them as they wanted to be like the rest and don't be noticed for being academically brilliant.

reasoning from several particular examples to establish a general principle