Central Ideas and Details
These questions ask what a passage is mainly about, and how specific details support that idea. Read closely, then check your understanding below.
Every morning for thirty-one years, Edwin had climbed the same one hundred and twelve steps to trim the lamp before dawn. He knew each step by the particular way it creaked, the way another man might know the sound of his own voice.
On this morning, the light he had oiled and adjusted for three decades was switched off for good — the harbor board had installed an automatic beacon the week before, tireless and unblinking, run from a box no larger than a suitcase.
Edwin climbed anyway, out of habit more than duty, and stood at the top as the electric light clicked on below him, indifferent to his presence. He found he did not feel the sorrow he had braced for. Instead there was something almost like relief, watching a light that no longer needed him shine on regardless.
Central ideas and details questions ask you to identify what a passage is mainly about, and how specific sentences or phrases support that main idea. The main idea isn’t always stated outright — often you have to infer it from the details the writer chooses to include.
A good strategy: after reading, try to summarize the passage in one sentence before looking at the answer choices. Wrong answers often focus on a small detail rather than the passage as a whole, or they contradict something the passage actually says.