The most straightforward Reading and Writing type (7.4% of the bank), containing two questions that need opposite habits. Covers the scope test for main-idea questions — the answer must cover the whole text and no more — the open-book discipline for detail questions, why a true statement about one sentence fails as a main idea, and the too-broad distractor that overreaches — with six worked examples, four traps and three checks.
Subject: SAT Prep · 61 slides · applied lesson
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Title
SAT Reading & Writing · Type 8 of 10
7.4% of the question bank — 125 of 1688 questions
Objectives
Two questions share this label. One asks what the passage is mainly about, and is decided by scope: the answer must cover the whole text without going beyond it. The other asks what the passage states about something specific, and is decided by finding the line. Neither is difficult, and they fail in opposite ways.
Two habits, one for each question: main idea is about scope; detail is open book.
Naruhodo Tutoring — SAT Reading and Writing question bank export (sat-english-question-index.json) — 125 tagged questions of this type in the site's bank
Section
Section 1
Concept
Two questions share this label. One asks what the passage is mainly about, and is decided by scope: the answer must cover the whole text without going beyond it. The other asks what the passage states about something specific, and is decided by finding the line. Neither is difficult, and they fail in opposite ways.
You will see it phrased in these ways:
The first phrasing is a scope question and the second is a lookup. Recognising which you have is worth doing before you read the choices, because the two need opposite approaches.
Picture it
The same three-panel card as the survey deck, so the shorthand carries over: what identifies it, what you write first, and what is built to catch you.
Figure (svg): Central Ideas and Details: the tell, the move, and the trap
Notice that the two halves of the green panel give opposite instructions. Main idea requires stepping back; detail requires going to one specific place.
Prediction
The two halves need opposite approaches.
Predict first
Which stem is a DETAIL question rather than a main-idea question?
Correct: According to the text, how long did the excavation last?
Why: According to the text asks for a specific stated fact, which makes it a lookup — find the line and match. The other three all ask about the passage as a whole, and are decided by scope. Recognising which you have takes two seconds and it determines whether you step back or go to one place.
Concept
Two questions, opposite habits.
| variant | what it asks | how to answer |
|---|---|---|
| Main idea | what the whole text is about | scope: cover everything, add nothing |
| Summary | the same question in different words | scope, again |
| Detail | what the text says about one thing | find the line and match |
| Most strongly suggests | a detail stated slightly indirectly | find the line; the answer is still in the text |
The last variant is worth noting: most strongly suggests sounds like an inference question, and on this type it usually means the fact is stated in slightly different words rather than genuinely inferred.
Definition probe
A passage describes how three coastal cities have responded to rising sea levels.
Sort into buckets
How does each candidate main idea fail or succeed?
Discrimination
Six stems.
Sort into buckets
Which question is each asking?
Warm-up
Try it before the rules.
Discussion prompt
A passage explains that a fungus once thought harmless has been found to kill young trees, and that foresters are now testing three treatments. Which is the main idea: the fungus kills young trees, or a fungus once thought harmless is now known to kill young trees and is being treated?
Hint: Which one covers the whole passage?
Answer:
The second. It covers both halves of the passage — the reassessment of the fungus AND the response to it.
The first is true and too narrow. It captures the discovery and says nothing about the treatments, which are half the text.
The scope test: a main idea must cover the whole text, and a choice covering only part of it fails however accurate it is.
The other failure to watch for is the opposite: a choice claiming that fungal disease is the greatest threat to forests would go BEYOND the passage.
So a main idea sits in a narrow band — everything the text covers, and nothing more.
Pattern
Two routines, and the first step is deciding which you need.
Read the stem and decide: main idea or detail?
Why: Main idea and primarily concerned with mean scope. According to the text means a lookup. The two need opposite approaches.
For a main idea, summarise the passage in one sentence before reading the choices.
Why: Your own summary fixes the scope, so choices that are too narrow or too broad become visible rather than plausible.
For a detail, find the line in the passage that answers it and read that line.
Why: These are open-book questions. Answering from memory of the passage is how the near-miss distractors succeed.
The two routines differ in direction: one steps back to see the whole, the other goes to one specific place. Doing the wrong one is the commonest structural error on this type.
Section
Section 2
Concept
The correct answer accounts for every part of the passage, not just its most striking sentence.
Scope is the whole test for this half of the type, and too narrow is the more common of the two failures.
Concept
The correct answer claims nothing the passage does not support.
Too broad choices feel impressive, because they sound like conclusions. The test is whether the passage actually supports them.
Prediction
The scope test, on the common failure.
Predict first
A passage describes three techniques for restoring damaged paintings. Which candidate main idea is too narrow?
Correct: Laser cleaning removes varnish without damaging pigment
Why: Laser cleaning is one of the three techniques, so this choice covers a third of the passage. It is accurate and it fails the scope test. The other three all describe the passage as a whole at slightly different levels of generality, and any of them could be the intended answer depending on the exact wording of the text.
Concept
Write your own one-sentence summary, then find the choice closest to it.
Three types in this section share this habit, and together they are around 32 per cent of the questions.
Prediction
The other direction of failure.
Predict first
A passage describes three coastal cities adapting to rising seas. Which candidate main idea is too broad?
Correct: Climate adaptation is the defining challenge of the century
Why: The passage describes three cities and never makes a claim about the century or about relative importance. The evaluative phrase defining challenge is exactly the kind of overreach to watch for. The other three describe the passage's actual scope in different words and stay inside what it supports.
Concept
The passage is in front of you, so find the line rather than recalling it.
There is no reward for remembering. Going back to the text costs about ten seconds and eliminates the entire class of memory-based errors.
Concept
A correct detail answer usually paraphrases the passage rather than quoting it.
Word-matching is a trap on this type: the choice sharing the most vocabulary with the passage is frequently the wrong one.
Prediction
Open book, not memory.
Predict first
A detail question asks how many sites were surveyed. What should you do?
Correct: Find the sentence in the passage that gives the number
Why: The passage is in front of you and it is short, so locating the number takes seconds and is certain. Recalling it invites the near-miss distractors, which are designed to match a hazy memory — a passage mentioning 40 sites and 400 samples will offer both numbers as choices.
Concept
On this type the phrase signals a fact stated indirectly, not a genuine inference.
If you find yourself reasoning several steps beyond the text on this type, you have probably drifted into a different question.
Concept
The setting a passage assumes is different from the point it makes.
This distinction catches careful readers, because the background is genuinely stated in the text and is genuinely true.
Prediction
Vocabulary overlap is not evidence.
Predict first
A passage says the treatment reduced symptoms in most patients. Which choice is a near-miss distractor?
Correct: The treatment eliminated symptoms in most patients
Why: Eliminated is far stronger than reduced, and the passage claims only reduction. This choice shares almost all its vocabulary with the passage, which is what makes it feel right. The other three paraphrase reduced accurately, which is what a correct detail answer usually looks like — different words, same claim.
Two truths and a lie
Three of these statements are correct. The one left standing is false.
Eliminate the wrong options
Which statement is FALSE?
Survives elimination: c
Why: Word overlap is a trap rather than a signal. Distractors are frequently built by taking the passage's own vocabulary and changing what is claimed — swapping reduced for eliminated, or some for most. A correct detail answer usually PARAPHRASES the passage, so it shares less vocabulary than the near-miss does. Match meaning rather than words.
Check
Summarise before reading the choices.
Check your understanding
A passage explains that a species of moth once common in industrial areas declined as air quality improved, because its dark colouring no longer camouflaged it against soot-stained bark. Which choice best states the main idea?
Answer: A
Why: The passage is about the moth's decline and its cause, and only this choice covers both — the change in colouring's usefulness and the environmental change that produced it.
All three distractors are true statements, and each fails in a different way: background, overreach, and too narrow. That set is close to what a real question offers.
Section
Section 3
Worked example
A passage explains that a manuscript long attributed to one author has been reattributed on the basis of handwriting analysis and paper dating. Which main idea?
Figure (svg): A main-idea question with three candidates measured against the scope test
Summarise the passage in one sentence before reading the choices: a manuscript has been reattributed on new evidence.
Why: Your own summary fixes the scope.
Test each choice for scope: does it cover the whole passage?
Why: Too narrow is the more common failure and it is hard to reject because the choice is true.
The paper dating is one piece of evidence, so it covers a fraction. The reattribution covers everything.
Why: The evidence exists in the passage in order to support the reattribution.
A useful test: does the choice explain why the rest of the passage is there? The reattribution explains the evidence; the paper dating explains nothing else.
Verify: check the winning choice accounts for the whole text: both kinds of evidence exist to support the reattribution.
Why: Nothing in the passage is left unexplained by the chosen main idea.
Answer: new evidence has led scholars to reattribute a manuscript
Worked example
A passage describes how two bird species in one valley have shifted their nesting dates over thirty years. Which main idea?
Figure (svg): A main-idea question showing both failure directions
Note the passage's actual scope: two species, one valley, thirty years.
Why: The scope of the text bounds the scope of its main idea.
The worldwide claim goes beyond that scope, however plausible it is.
Why: The passage never generalises, so a choice that does claims more than the text supports.
The eleven-day figure covers one of the two species, so it is too narrow.
Why: Both failure directions are represented, which is a common construction.
Having both failure directions among the choices is common. Naming which failure each commits is faster than weighing them against each other.
Verify: check the winning choice against both bounds: it covers both species and claims nothing about elsewhere.
Why: It sits exactly in the band between too narrow and too broad.
Answer: two bird species in one valley have shifted their nesting dates
Worked example
A passage states: the team surveyed 40 sites and collected 400 samples over eleven weeks. How many sites were surveyed?
Figure (svg): Three quantities from one sentence, only one of which is asked about
Go to the sentence containing the numbers rather than recalling them.
Why: The passage is short and the sentence is easy to locate.
Identify which quantity the question names: sites, not samples or weeks.
Why: All three numbers will appear among the choices.
Read the number attached to sites: 40.
Why: Reading the line settles it with no risk of a memory error.
One sentence supplied three numbers and the question asked about one. This is why these are open-book questions rather than memory questions.
Verify: check the other numbers are attached to different nouns: 400 to samples and eleven to weeks.
Why: Confirming the distractors belong to other quantities validates the reading.
Answer: 40
Step zero
Before reading the choices.
Discussion prompt
You reach a question on this type. What single decision determines how you proceed, and what are the two paths?
Hint: The stem's wording tells you.
Answer:
Decide whether it is a MAIN IDEA question or a DETAIL question.
Main idea, summarises, primarily concerned with — this is a scope question. Summarise the passage in one sentence before reading the choices.
According to the text, based on the text — this is a lookup. Find the line that answers it.
The two paths are opposite in direction: one steps back to take in the whole passage, the other goes to one specific place.
Doing the wrong one is the commonest structural error here — searching for a line when the question wanted scope, or generalising when it wanted a stated number.
Worked example
A passage states: the coating reduced corrosion in most of the samples tested. Which choice accurately reports this?
Figure (svg): One accurate paraphrase and two choices that strengthen the claim
Find the line and note both qualifiers: reduced, and most.
Why: Detail distractors nearly always alter a qualifier rather than a fact.
Check each choice against both: eliminated strengthens the verb, and all strengthens the quantity.
Why: Either change makes the claim stronger than the passage supports.
The paraphrase using decreased and majority preserves both.
Why: A correct detail answer usually rewords while keeping every qualifier.
Watch the quantifiers — some, most, all — and the strength verbs — reduced, eliminated. Changing one is the standard way a near-miss is built.
Verify: note that the correct answer shares the FEWEST words with the passage.
Why: Word overlap is a trap on this type, not a signal.
Answer: corrosion decreased in a majority of the samples
Worked example
A passage notes that antibiotic resistance is rising and then describes a new screening method for detecting resistant strains early. Which is the main idea?
Figure (svg): The background statement distinguished from the passage's actual point
Identify what the passage spends its length on: the screening method.
Why: The proportion of the text devoted to something is a good guide to the main idea.
The resistance claim appears once, to establish why the method matters.
Why: It is the setting rather than the subject.
So the main idea is the method, not the background it responds to.
Why: The background exists in the passage to motivate the point.
The what-would-be-lost test is useful when a passage opens with a general statement. The opening usually motivates the point rather than being it.
Verify: ask what would be lost if the passage had not been written: knowledge of the new method.
Why: Rising resistance was already known; the method is the new information.
Answer: a new method allows resistant strains to be detected earlier
Faded example
From memory. Two questions, two habits.
Fill in the blanks
A main idea must cover the whole text and claim nothing beyond it. Summarise the passage in one sentence before reading the choices. A detail question is open book — find the line rather than recalling it.
Why: The first two blanks define a band: everything the text covers, and nothing more. Both failure directions are represented among the choices on most questions, which is why naming which one a choice commits is faster than weighing choices against each other.
Worked example
A passage says: the pigment appears only in works produced after 1610, and never in earlier ones. What does the text most strongly suggest about a work containing the pigment?
Figure (svg): A stated fact and the conclusion it directly licenses
Find the line: the pigment appears only after 1610 and never before.
Why: The phrase most strongly suggests still points at a stated fact on this type.
The word only means containing the pigment implies production after 1610.
Why: This is a restatement of the stated fact rather than an extension of it.
So the suggestion is that the work postdates 1610.
Why: No reasoning beyond the sentence is required.
On this type most strongly suggests means stated indirectly. If you find yourself reasoning several steps out, check whether you have drifted into a different question type.
Verify: check nothing beyond the text is needed: the word only does all the work.
Why: If several steps of reasoning were needed, the question would be an Inferences question instead.
Answer: it was produced after 1610
Fill the middle
Four ways a choice fails on this type.
Fill in the blanks
A choice can be too narrow, covering only part of the text. It can be too broad, claiming more than the text supports. It can name the background the passage assumes rather than its point. And on a detail question it can share the passage's vocabulary while strengthening the claim.
Why: All four failures produce choices that are either true or nearly true, which is why accuracy is not a useful test on this type. Naming the failure is faster and more reliable than arguing with the choice on its own terms.
Estimation
Most main-idea distractors fail on scope alone.
Predict first
A passage describes four experiments testing one hypothesis. A choice describes only the third experiment. What is wrong with it?
Correct: It is too narrow — it covers a quarter of the passage
Why: A main idea must account for the whole text, and one of four experiments covers a quarter of it. The choice is almost certainly accurate, which is what makes it hard to reject — accuracy is not the test. Judging scope before considering accuracy eliminates this class of distractor in a few seconds.
Check
Go back to the passage.
Check your understanding
A passage states: over eleven weeks the team surveyed 40 sites, collecting 400 samples, of which 36 contained the marker. According to the text, how many samples contained the marker?
Answer: A
Why: The sentence attaches 36 specifically to samples containing the marker. Locating the phrase of which 36 contained the marker settles it in a few seconds.
One sentence supplied four numbers and every one appears among the choices. That is precisely why these questions must be answered from the text rather than from memory.
Section
Section 4
Trap
The trap. A choice states something the passage definitely says, and says it precisely. You check it against the text and it matches.
But it describes one sentence or one example, and the question asked for the main idea of the whole text.
Its accuracy is exactly what makes it hard to reject.
The fix. Test for scope before testing for accuracy.
Ask whether the choice accounts for the whole passage, including its final sentences.
Trap
The trap. A choice generalises the passage's finding to all cases, or adds an evaluation — that something is the greatest challenge, or a serious problem.
It sounds like a conclusion, which makes it feel like a main idea.
The passage discussed three cities, or two species, and never claimed anything about the wider world.
The fix. Check the passage's actual scope and compare.
Watch for absolute and evaluative words: all, always, greatest, most important, only.
Error analysis
A student's choice on a main-idea question. The choice is accurate.
Annotate
On: \( \text{Passage: three restoration techniques.} \;\Rightarrow\; \text{chose: laser cleaning removes varnish safely} \)
The two halves of this type reward opposite habits, and applying the detail habit to a main-idea question produces precisely this failure. Deciding which question you have is the first step for a reason.
Trap
The trap. You read the passage, feel you have absorbed it, and answer a detail question without going back.
The passage mentioned 40 sites, 400 samples and eleven weeks. All three appear among the choices.
A hazy memory selects a plausible number, and the distractors were built for exactly that.
The fix. Go back to the passage and find the sentence.
It is short, the fact is locatable in seconds, and there is no reward for remembering.
Elimination
A passage describes how three medieval towns organised their grain storage during famines.
Eliminate the wrong options
Which is the main idea? Three fail on scope.
Survives elimination: a
Why: Only one choice covers all three towns and claims nothing beyond them. The three failures are the standard set: too narrow, too broad, and background rather than point. Each is true or nearly true, which is why scope rather than accuracy is what separates them.
Trap
The trap. A choice reuses the passage's exact vocabulary and feels like a direct quotation.
But it has changed a qualifier: reduced has become eliminated, or most has become all.
The shared vocabulary is what makes it convincing.
The fix. Compare the CLAIM, not the words.
Check every qualifier — some, most, all — and every strength verb.
Counterexample
A standard that seems obviously right.
Discussion prompt
A student says: the main idea is whichever choice is most clearly stated in the passage. Give a counterexample.
Hint: Think about a striking sentence in a passage about something else.
Answer:
Counterexample: a passage describing three restoration techniques, one of which is laser cleaning.
The sentence about laser cleaning may be the most vivid and most explicitly stated in the whole passage — and it is not the main idea.
The main idea is frequently NOT stated in a single sentence at all. It is what all the sentences together are about.
A second counterexample: a passage opens with antibiotic resistance is rising, a clear and explicit statement, and then spends its length on a new detection method. The explicit opening is background.
The corrected standard: the main idea covers the whole text and no more, whether or not any single sentence states it.
Edge cases
Cover everything and add nothing. How precise does that have to be?
Discussion prompt
When two choices both cover the whole passage without overreaching, what decides between them?
Hint: Consider the level of generality.
Answer:
Two choices can both fit the band, differing only in how generally they describe the passage.
Prefer the one that captures the passage's specific point rather than a vaguer version of it. Conservators use several techniques is better than restoration is complex.
Check whether either choice omits a part of the passage. Even a small omission — a final paragraph offering a caveat — makes a choice narrower than its rival.
Check the emphasis. If the passage spends most of its length on one thing, a choice giving equal weight to a minor point mismatches its emphasis.
And a practical tie-breaker: ask which choice would let a reader predict what the passage contains. That is what a main idea does.
Check
Check the qualifiers.
Check your understanding
A passage states: in laboratory trials, the compound slowed the growth of several bacterial strains. According to the text, what did the compound do?
Answer: A
Why: The passage says slowed, several and in laboratory trials. The correct choice preserves all three, paraphrasing slowed as reduced the growth rate and several as some.
Each distractor alters exactly one element — the verb's strength, the quantifier, or the setting — while keeping the rest of the wording. The correct answer shares the fewest words with the passage.
Section
Section 5
Matching
A passage describes three towns' grain storage systems during famines.
Match the pairs
Why: Five distinct failure modes, and all but the last are true or plausible statements. The final one is worth noting separately: a choice can contradict the passage while sounding like a reasonable summary, and checking against the text catches only that one.
Sorting
The passage describes how two glaciers in one range have retreated at different rates.
Sort into buckets
Does each have the right scope?
Two choices have the right scope here, which happens. When it does, the finer test is which one captures the passage's specific point rather than a vaguer version of it.
Comparison
Fill the blanks from memory.
Comparison matrix
| main idea | detail | |
|---|---|---|
| Stem wording | main idea, summarises, primarily concerned with | according to the text, based on the text |
| What decides it | scope — cover everything, add nothing | what the passage actually states |
| The habit | summarise in one sentence first | find the line, do not recall it |
| The signature trap | a true statement about one sentence | the passage's words with a changed qualifier |
The two columns require opposite movements — stepping back, and going to one place. Deciding which question you have before doing either is the first step of the routine.
Trade off
Fill the blanks from memory.
Comparison matrix
| habit | time | what it prevents |
|---|---|---|
| Summarising before reading choices | about ten seconds | being talked into a too-narrow or too-broad choice |
| Going back to find the line | about ten seconds | every memory-based near-miss |
| Checking the qualifiers | about five seconds | the strengthened-claim distractor |
| Answering from memory | no time at all | nothing — it is what the distractors are built for |
The first three cost about twenty-five seconds between them and prevent every standard failure on the type. That is an unusually good return, which is why this type should be among the fastest and most reliable in the section.
Real world
One minute on why scope matters.
Discussion prompt
Getting the scope of a claim right matters well beyond a reading test. Where does it go wrong in practice?
Answer:
In how research is reported. A study of 200 people in one city becomes a headline about what people do, which is the too-broad failure exactly.
In how arguments are summarised. Reducing someone's position to its most striking sentence misrepresents it, which is the too-narrow failure.
In note-taking and revision. A summary that captures one memorable example rather than the argument is useless later, for the same reason.
And in writing. Stating a claim wider than your evidence supports is the most common flaw in student essays, and it is what the too-broad distractor is modelling.
The skill the SAT is testing — matching the scope of a statement to the scope of the evidence behind it — is the same one that separates careful writing from overreach.
Ranking
The passage describes two glaciers in one range retreating at different rates. Order from narrowest to broadest.
Put in order
Why: The first covers one glacier, the second covers both — which matches the passage — the third widens to a region the passage did not survey, and the fourth widens to the world. Only the second sits at the passage's own scope. Note that the correct answer is not the narrowest or the broadest but the one matching the text, which is why scope is a matching exercise rather than a preference for generality.
Concept
This type is 7.4 per cent of the section and is the most straightforward in it, so the aim is speed and reliability rather than difficulty.
| session | what you do | why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Twenty main-idea questions, writing a one-sentence summary before reading any choice. | Fixes the scope before the choices can widen or narrow it. |
| 2 | For fifteen wrong choices, label each as too narrow, too broad, or background. | Categorising is faster than arguing and builds recognition. |
| 3 | Fifteen detail questions, locating the supporting line for every answer. | Kills the entire class of memory-based errors. |
| 4 | Ten detail questions focused on qualifiers, checking some, most, all and verb strength. | The near-miss distractor is built from exactly these. |
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Explain it to yourself
Close the deck.
Discussion prompt
Without looking, state how to answer a main-idea question and how to answer a detail question, and name the signature trap of each.
Hint: The two habits move in opposite directions.
Answer:
Main idea: summarise the passage in one sentence before reading the choices, then find the choice matching that scope — covering the whole text and claiming nothing beyond it.
Its signature trap: a true statement about one sentence, offered as the main idea. Accurate and too narrow.
Detail: go back to the passage and find the line that answers the question, then match.
Its signature trap: a choice reusing the passage's vocabulary with a qualifier changed — reduced to eliminated, or most to all.
If you also noted that the background of a passage is not its main idea, you have the third distractor type as well.
Explain it
Two minutes, out loud.
Discussion prompt
A friend picks main-idea answers that are definitely stated in the passage and keeps getting them wrong. What is happening?
Answer:
Diagnose it: they are applying the DETAIL habit to a MAIN IDEA question. Finding a statement clearly supported by the text is exactly right for a detail question and exactly wrong here.
Explain what a main idea is: not a sentence from the passage, but what all the sentences together are about. It is often not stated anywhere directly.
Give the example. A passage describing three restoration techniques — the sentence about lasers may be the most vivid, and the main idea is that conservators use several techniques suited to different damage.
Give the diagnostic question: does this choice explain why the rest of the passage is there? If two thirds of the text becomes unaccounted for, the choice is too narrow.
And the habit: summarise the passage in one sentence before reading any choice, so you are matching rather than searching.
Commit first
Commit before you check.
Predict first
A passage describes how a particular fungus forms partnerships with the roots of three tree species. Which is the best main idea?
Correct: A fungus forms root partnerships with several tree species
Why: The passage covers one fungus and three tree species, and this choice matches that scope exactly. The second generalises to all fungi and all forests, which the passage never claims. The third covers one of the three species and is too narrow. The fourth reverses the emphasis, making the trees the subject when the passage is about the fungus.
Connect it up
Blank paper.
Draw it
Draw a horizontal band across the page labelled THE RIGHT SCOPE, with an arrow below it pointing left labelled TOO NARROW and an arrow above pointing right labelled TOO BROAD. Under the narrow arrow write: true of one sentence. Under the broad arrow write: claims more than the text supports, and list the warning words all, always, greatest, only. To the side, draw a separate box headed DETAIL, with the instruction find the line, and beneath it the qualifiers to check: some, most, all, reduced, eliminated. At the bottom write the first decision: is this a scope question or a lookup?
Exit ticket
One question before you close the deck.
Predict first
A main-idea choice is definitely stated in the passage and you are unsure about it. What should you check?
Correct: Whether it accounts for the whole passage
Why: Being stated in the passage is the test for a detail question and not for a main idea. The main idea must cover the whole text, so a clearly stated sentence describing one example still fails. Appearing first is no guide — passages often open with background — and matching the passage's vocabulary is a trap rather than a signal, since distractors are frequently built from the text's own words.
Recap
Two questions, opposite habits: scope for the whole, and a lookup for a fact.
| never do this | do this instead |
|---|---|
| Pick the most clearly stated sentence as the main idea | Ask whether it covers the whole text |
| Accept a generalisation the passage did not make | Match the scope of the text exactly |
| Answer a detail question from memory | Go back and find the line |
| Choose the option sharing the most vocabulary | Compare the claim, not the words |
| Take the opening sentence as the main idea | It is often the background |
| Apply the detail habit to a main-idea question | Decide which question you have first |
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