Worked examples
Two examples
Example 1
A passage written for this example
What is the passage mainly about?A. the fees a settler had to payIn 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Homestead Act. It offered 160 acres of public land in the West to a settler who would live on it for five years, build a home, and farm it. The settler paid only small fees. Single women and immigrants could file claims, and after the Civil War, so could freed African Americans. Over time, about 270 million acres, about 10 percent of the land of the United States, passed to private owners this way. Much of that land had been taken from Native nations.
B. how the Homestead Act gave western land to settlers who would live on it and farm it
C. the history of farming in America
D. how Lincoln gave 270 million acres to Native nations
- Ask what every sentence is about. Sentence 1: the law and the year. Sentence 2: what it offered, and what the settler had to do. Sentence 3: the small fees. Sentence 4: who could file. Sentence 5: how much land passed to owners. Sentence 6: where much of the land had come from.
- All six are about one law and the land it gave out. No single sentence says that, so build it: the Homestead Act gave western land to settlers who would live on it and farm it.
- A, the fees, is one sentence, one detail: too narrow.
- C, the history of farming in America, covers far more than this passage, which is about one law: too wide.
- D uses the passage’s own words (Lincoln, 270 million acres, Native nations) but changes what they say. The passage says much of the land had been taken from Native nations. That is a twist.
- B matches what every sentence is about.
Answer: B
Example 2
A passage written for this example
Which statement best states the central idea of the passage?A. About 73 percent of the voters approved the change.In 2019, New York City voters approved a change in the way the city chooses its candidates. Since 2021, in primary elections and special elections for city offices, voters may rank up to five candidates in order, from first choice to fifth. If no candidate wins more than half of the first-choice votes, the candidate in last place is dropped. Each ballot for that candidate then goes to the voter’s next choice. The counting goes on, round by round, until one candidate has more than half of the votes still being counted. About 73 percent of the voters approved the change.
B. Every election in the United States now uses ranked voting.
C. New York City now lets voters rank candidates in some elections, and counts the votes in rounds until one candidate has more than half.
D. Voters must rank exactly five candidates.
- Ask what every sentence is about: the change in how the city chooses candidates, when it began, how ranking works, how the votes are counted, and how many voters approved it.
- Put that in one sentence: the city now lets voters rank candidates, and the votes are counted in rounds until someone has more than half. That is C.
- A is true and in the passage, but it is one number from the last sentence: too narrow.
- B covers the whole country, and the passage is about New York City only: too wide.
- D borrows the passage’s words, “five candidates,” but the passage says up to five. That is a twist.
- Here the right answer happens to be the longest choice. That is not a rule: check each choice against the passage, not its length.
Answer: C
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.