Question

read the paragraph about activist wangari maathai. select the sentence that should be removed to improve the focus of the paragraph.
in 2004, kenyan environmental activist wangari maathai won the nobel peace prize. the award recognized, in part, her founding of the green belt movement (gbm) in the 1970s. at that time, forests in kenya were being cleared at alarming rates, leading to soil erosion and drought. in addition to these environmental effects, the destruction of forests caused families to lose vital access to firewood. with the trees gone, it became difficult for families to build fires. mathaai and the gbm addressed these issues by working primarily with women farmers to plant clusters of trees across parts of their farmland. by the late 1980s, maathai had influenced several other african countries to adopt this approach to environmental conservation. over the next several decades, the gbm succeeded in planting roughly thirty million trees across the continent.

Explanation:

The paragraph focuses on Wangari Maathai's Nobel Peace Prize recognition tied to her Green Belt Movement and its environmental work. The sentence about influencing other African countries shifts focus away from Maathai/GBM's core Kenyan origins and direct environmental impact in the main narrative, so it should be removed to tighten the focus.

Answer:

"By the late 1980s, Maathai had influenced several other African countries to adopt this approach to environmental conservation."