Q6

[AnnaL176]

Can someone please explain why answer A is wrong? This seemed like the main point, and an idea the author would favor.

Thank you!

[Theodorew728]

I kept A on the first pass, too, and narrowed the A/C's down to A and E. A seemed too broad, and I couldn't find any one line to support it. Ultimately, I went with E because of the citation about eye-closure from lines 57-60. In a previous post Matt Shinner (sp?) mentioned doing a quick mental dialogue before hitting the questions. He asks, "Which one-three lines comprise the Main Idea?" Lines 57-60 leapt out to me as a candidate for the Main Idea Q, before I hit the questions.

[ohthatpatrick]

Yeah, I similarly encourage students to look for the Most Valuable Sentence(s).

Which sentence (or up to 3 sentences) best capture the author's voice, delivering on her overall purpose?

And students should be aware that a comical percent of the time,
the Most Valuable Sentence appears after one of these words:
But, Yet, However, Recently

Main Point = Topic + Purpose

The topic is "methods the police can use / have used / do use for trying to extract as much true info from someone without increasing wrong info".

The purpose in writing about it is "to suggest one method as superior to two others". Or, if you're used to thinking about these passages using the 6 or so common passage types, we'd probably call this a Problem / Solution passage.

Problem: what's an easy, accurate, effective way to get more info from witnesses?

Solution: eyes closed method

The author delivers on that purpose in the final paragraph. Lines 40-47 setup the Purpose ... "Wouldn't it be great if there were a better way? There is."
Line 50 is the recently we so often see near the main point.

ANSWERS

(A) This is the setup, but not the punchline. We've found the "ideal" interview procedure: the eyes-closed method!

(B) This buries the lead: the author picked the best one.

(C) Cool. That is factually true. But the main point is that this technique is the best option of the three methods.

(D) Huh? The author thinks the closed-eyes method is better.

(E) Yes, this looks good.

[royW659]

But wouldn't that be too specific? Only the few final lines mention the eye closure technique. The whole passage overall is evaluating a few techniques. Choosing E makes it look like we are ignoring the rest of the paragraphs when we select the main point. Or am I not understanding this right? Can we ignore other parts of the passage when it comes to main point questions?

Yeah, I similarly encourage students to look for the Most Valuable Sentence(s).

Which sentence (or up to 3 sentences) best capture the author's voice, delivering on her overall purpose?

And students should be aware that a comical percent of the time,
the Most Valuable Sentence appears after one of these words:
But, Yet, However, Recently

Main Point = Topic + Purpose

The topic is "methods the police can use / have used / do use for trying to extract as much true info from someone without increasing wrong info".

The purpose in writing about it is "to suggest one method as superior to two others". Or, if you're used to thinking about these passages using the 6 or so common passage types, we'd probably call this a Problem / Solution passage.

Problem: what's an easy, accurate, effective way to get more info from witnesses?

Solution: eyes closed method

The author delivers on that purpose in the final paragraph. Lines 40-47 setup the Purpose ... "Wouldn't it be great if there were a better way? There is."
Line 50 is the recently we so often see near the main point.

ANSWERS

(A) This is the setup, but not the punchline. We've found the "ideal" interview procedure: the eyes-closed method!

(B) This buries the lead: the author picked the best one.

(C) Cool. That is factually true. But the main point is that this technique is the best option of the three methods.

(D) Huh? The author thinks the closed-eyes method is better.

(E) Yes, this looks good.

[Laura Damone]

First, please excuse the delayed response. This one must have slipped through the cracks amidst all the craziness of the past few weeks.

Second, the main point of a passage is the point the author is trying to convince you of. Frequently, the right answer will pull from all over the passage, but not always.

The test writers could have made E a more attractive correct answer if they had said that eye-closure is superior to the two other methods described. Then the answer would have addressed paragraphs 1-3 explicitly. But even without that, the point of the passage is still to advocate for eye-closure, and that's exactly what E says.

Hope this helps!