Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
A passage written for this example (its sentences are numbered)
Sentence 2: “It was the first newspaper in the United States owned and run by Black Americans.”Is this sentence the central idea of the passage, or a detail?(1) On March 16, 1827, Samuel Cornish and John Russwurm published the first issue of Freedom’s Journal in New York City. (2) It was the first newspaper in the United States owned and run by Black Americans. (3) At the time, some New York newspapers mocked Black people, or claimed to speak for them without asking them. (4) The editors explained their purpose in that first issue: “We wish to plead our own cause. Too long have others spoken for us.” (5) In its pages, free Black Americans had a voice of their own in print.
- Read the whole passage once before you look at the one sentence. Then ask the question from Skills Quiz 1: what is every sentence about?
- Sentence 1 gives the date, the editors, and the city. Sentence 3 tells what some other newspapers were doing. Sentence 4 gives the editors’ purpose in their own words: to speak for themselves. Sentence 5 says what the paper gave its readers.
- Now look at sentence 2 by itself. It gives one fact: the paper was the first owned and run by Black Americans. It is true, and it matters, but it is one piece of the passage. Sentences 3 and 4 are not about being first.
- The sentence that every other sentence supports is the last one: in its pages, free Black Americans had a voice of their own in print. That is the central idea. Sentence 2 is a detail that helps show it.
- Notice the trap. A detail that sounds important, a “first,” can feel like the main point. Calling it the central idea is the too narrow mistake.
Answer: A detail
Example 2
A passage written for this example (its sentences are numbered)
Which sentence states the central idea of the passage?(1) The Holland Tunnel, which opened under the Hudson River in November 1927, solved a problem that no tunnel had faced before: the exhaust from cars and trucks. (2) Its chief engineer, Clifford Holland, died in 1924, before the work was finished. (3) Cars and trucks give off carbon monoxide, a poison gas, and in a long tunnel it could build up to deadly levels. (4) The engineers built four ventilation buildings with 84 large fans. (5) The fans push fresh air in below the roadway and pull the bad air out above it, and they can replace all the air in the tunnel every 90 seconds.
- Say in a few words what each sentence does.
- Sentence 1: the tunnel solved a new problem, car exhaust. Sentence 2: the chief engineer died before it was finished. Sentence 3: why exhaust was a danger. Sentence 4: the ventilation buildings and fans. Sentence 5: how the fans clear the air.
- Sentences 3, 4 and 5 are all about the exhaust problem and how it was solved. Sentence 2 is a side fact about one person.
- Which sentence covers all of that? Sentence 1. It names the problem, and the rest of the passage explains the problem and the solution.
- Sentence 5, with its 90 seconds, is the most vivid, and it is easy to remember. But it is one detail of the solution: too narrow.
Answer: Sentence 1
Where this is taught: Skills Quiz 1, Reading a passage: First, the idea · Skills Quiz 1: the worked example · Skills Diagnostic, Part 1
In your Kaplan book: Unit 3, Chapter 1, Lesson 1: Determine Central Idea and Draw Conclusions · Map of the Terrain, topic 1: Reading a passage
The drill
Ten questions
How many:
Read what is in the box first. Then tap your answer; a few questions ask you to choose words from a drop-down instead, the way the GED test does. Press Check my answers at the bottom.Read what is in the box first. Circle your answer; where there are brackets, circle the choice that fits. The answer key, with the reasoning, is on the last page.