Q.Consider the oxides Li2O, CO2, B2O3.
a. Which oxide would you expect to be the most basic?
b. Which oxide would be the most acidic?
c. Give the formula of an amphoteric oxide.

Step 1a. Most basic oxide. Among Li2O, CO2 and B2O3, lithium is the most metallic/electropositive element of the three (an alkali metal, group 1), and metal oxides are typically basic (section 7.5.3.3) — so Li2O is the most basic of the three.

Step 1b. Most acidic oxide. Carbon is the most nonmetallic of the three elements here, and the chapter's own example explicitly lists CO2 as a 'weakly acidic' oxide of a central main-group element (section 7.5.3.3) — among these three, CO2 is the most acidic (boron's oxide B2O3 is also acidic/weakly acidic rather than basic or amphoteric, since boron sits at the metalloid boundary, but carbon's higher electronegativity and clearer nonmetallic character make CO2 the more strongly acidic of the two nonmetal oxides here). …

Ranking three oxides by their parent element's metallic/nonmetallic character, then supplying t …

• Naming B2O3 as the amphoteric oxide, when the chapter's own text (section 7.5.3.3) classifies boron/central-main-group oxides like this as weakly acidic, and gives Al2O3 as its explicit amphoteric example instead. …