Read the passage first
The lesson below refers to this passage.
What a Catalog Cannot Show
Overview
A main idea captures the relationship the passage develops, not merely its topic. A summary adds the important progression while keeping the author's qualifications. Begin by asking what question the opening raises and what the ending says about it. Examples support that answer; they should not replace it.
“What a Catalog Cannot Show” is about matching general information to local conditions. Color and height are useful catalog details, but seasonal shade and establishment watering require site-specific judgment. A summary that calls catalogs deceptive contradicts the explicit defense of their general role. A summary that lists only sun, soil, and watering loses the relationship between a description for many readers and a particular garden. The author's measured tone follows from appreciating usefulness while marking limits.
“A Quiet Result” begins with expected recall results and ends with a more cautious report. The fan-room advantage is an observation, but self-selected groups might differ in habits. Equal word lists and study time do not remove that possibility. A second trial with assigned rooms and similar results would address both a group-selection concern and the question of recurrence. Saying “noise improves memory” collapses steady sound and interrupted conversation and exceeds the evidence.
When alternatives mention real details, check their scope and causal claims. An attractive partial summary may omit the revision in understanding; another may turn a hypothesis into a finding. For evidence questions, match the detail to the exact limitation or conclusion. In a new passage, formulate one sentence using its central relationship, then compare it with the opening and ending. If that sentence requires an event, judgment, or certainty absent from the text, narrow it before selecting an answer.
Apply the method to a complete new context
Read the whole passage before choosing an answer.
A Tally at the Corner
Neighbors who wanted a crosswalk near the community garden spent a week counting people who crossed the road there. They recorded more than two hundred crossings, most in the late afternoon, and sent the tally to the city.
A traffic planner thanked them and explained what the count could show. It established that many people cross at that spot. It did not show how fast cars travel there or whether drivers can see pedestrians around the curve. Those conditions decide whether painted lines would make crossing safer or only appear to.
The city agreed to measure speeds and sight lines before deciding. The tally had not settled the question, but it had made the question worth studying.
Which summary best preserves the passage's main idea? A. A count of crossings proved that a crosswalk would be safer, so the city approved one. B. A planner set aside the neighbors' count because volunteers rather than staff collected it. C. A count showed a need worth studying, but a decision required speed and visibility data. D. Neighbors counted over two hundred crossings near the garden, mostly in the late afternoon.
The supported answer is C: A count showed a need worth studying, but a decision required speed and visibility data. The passage moves from the count, to what it does and does not establish, to the city's decision to gather more evidence. Choice D reports accurate details but drops the planner's qualification, which is the relationship the passage develops.
A sound summary names the passage's central relationship and keeps the qualification that limits its conclusion.