Question

Read this excerpt from "Herd About the Flu." Where is the shot, and why can't you get it? There are several answers to these questions. First, it just may not be ready. Flu viruses change all of the time, so new flu vaccines must be produced every year, and they take months to develop in research labs. However, there might also just not be enough flu shots because not many companies make them. There aren’t many flu vaccine manufacturers remaining these days. In the 1980s, there were twenty-five to thirty vaccine manufacturers. Today there are only five. And there are even fewer manufacturers of the flu vaccine—only two. The other companies closed after they lost money making vaccines that not enough people wanted. Why does the author begin this section with a question?
to provide icons that give visual cues about the topic
to suggest that there is a problem that is being investigated
to suggest that readers should draw their own conclusions
to provide readers with information for making predictions

Answer 1

We can say that the author opened the section with a question in order to provide us with icons that give visual cues about the topic: creating vaccines against the flu virus is a difficult, expensive process.

Answer 2

The answer is D. to provide readers with information for making predictions.

Explanation:

There is a reading technique in which we make predictions to get an idea of what we are going to read. In this case, the question gives us a clue for making predictions and understand better the text. In fact, the text says that there are several answers to the question, it means that we can do several predictions about it.