Chapter 2 • Lesson 9
Main Idea and Details
Getting the Idea
The main idea is the central message of a text. Usually, an author will state the main
idea directly, typically in the first paragraph or introduction. For example, the main idea of
an informative article on rabbits might be: Rabbits have several adaptations that enable
them to survive. The main idea of a persuasive essay on college athletes might be:
College athletes should be paid to compete. By stating the main idea at the beginning,
an author lets readers know what to expect from the text.
Sometimes the main idea of a text is implied. In other words, it is not explicitly stated.
This means that you have to use the details in the text to figure out the main idea. For
instance, read the paragraph below:
Porpoises have flattened teeth shaped like spades, whereas dolphins
have cone-shaped teeth. Dolphins also have a distinct beak, unlike
porpoises, which have a blunt snout. In addition, although their length and
weight can vary, porpoises are generally smaller than dolphins. Furthermore,
there are over thirty species of dolphins, but only six species of porpoises.
To distinguish between a main idea and a detail, remember that a main idea expresses
what the passage as a whole, or sometimes a paragraph as a whole, is mostly about.
A detail is a specific, narrower idea.
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Details are the facts, examples, reasons, and descriptions that support the main idea.
The significant details in a passage are the most important ones. They are also most
directly related to the main idea. In the paragraph above, every sentence contains a
significant detail. The shape of the animals’ teeth, the animals’ size, and the number of
species all directly support the main idea that these animals have major differences.
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What is the main idea of the paragraph? First, look at the details. Notice that the
sentences are about porpoises and dolphins. The sentences contrast the major features
of the two animals. The main idea of the paragraph is: There are significant differences
between porpoises and dolphins.
Lesson 9: Main Idea and Details
Like an implied main idea, an implied detail is not directly stated in the passage. Read the
paragraph below:
Carmen slowly carried the tray down the hall. It was her father’s birthday, and
she had made him his favorite breakfast. At the door, she carefully reached out to
turn the knob. Suddenly, her father swung open the door. Later, after her dad had
apologized profusely, they went out for breakfast.
The passage does not state it directly, but you can figure out that Carmen probably dropped the
tray. The other sentences are clues to this implied detail: her father swings open the door; he
apologizes; they have to go out for breakfast.
A subtly stated detail falls somewhere between an explicitly stated detail and an implied detail.
Read these sentences:
Pasta cooked al dente is soft, but there is a slight resistance in the center when
you chew it. If you want your pasta al dente, keep an eye on it. A cook who boils the
pasta for too long will be disappointed.
This passage does not directly say “overcooked pasta will not be al dente.” It says that if you
want it al dente, you will be disappointed if you boil it for too long.
Thinking It Through
Read the following sentences, and then answer the question that follows.
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Duplicating any part of this book is prohibited by law.
Annie looked at her favorite shirt in the mirror and groaned. She
wished she would have heeded her mother’s warning and changed her
shirt before the barbecue.
What is the implied detail in this passage?
Hint Use the other sentences to figure it out.
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Coached Example
Read the passage and answer the questions.
Arielle was eager for summer to begin. Summer
meant warmer weather, and it also meant she could
spend her afternoons at the horse stables. It was going
to take a while to prepare for the horse-jumping show
in July. During the past winter, Arielle had fallen on
the ice at Hastings Pond and fractured her ankle. But
now that she was out of her cast, she couldn’t wait to
get back to riding the horses. Arielle’s older sister,
Paige, had won the grand champion trophy at
the horse-jumping show last year, and Arielle was
determined to do just as well. She had already polished
her saddle and boots. As soon as May arrived, she would
head over to the stables and prepare her favorite palomino,
Butternut. She would begin the strenuous training that would
hopefully result in her own trophy.
What is the main idea of the passage?
2.
The author supports the main idea by
A. including examples of horse-jumping
events.
B. Arielle wants to become better at
horse-jumping than her sister, Paige.
B. comparing Arielle’s and Paige’s
horse-jumping styles.
C. Arielle is eager to begin preparing for
summer’s horse-jumping show.
C. explaining how Arielle fractured
her ankle.
D. Arielle fractured her ankle at
Hastings Pond last winter.
D. providing details about Arielle’s
preparations.
Hint Do not confuse supporting details with the
main idea.
Hint Choose the answer most closely related to the
main idea.
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A. Arielle will enjoy her summer a lot
more now that she is out of her cast.
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1.
Lesson 9: Main Idea and Details
Lesson Practice
Use the Reading Guide to help you understand the passage.
excerpted and adapted from
Political Ideals
Reading Guide
Look for the main idea
of the passage.
by Bertrand Russell
1
How does the Troilus
and Cressida example
support the main idea
of paragraph 2?
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Duplicating any part of this book is prohibited by law.
2
3
4
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Political ideals must be based upon ideals for the individual
life. The aim of politics should be to make the lives of individuals
as good as possible. There is nothing for the politician to consider
outside or above the various men, women, and children who
compose the world. The problem of politics is to adjust the
relations of human beings in such a way that each may have
as much of good in his existence as possible. And this problem
requires that we should first consider what it is that we think is
good in the individual life.
To begin with, we do not want all men to be alike. We do
not want to lay down a pattern or type to which men of all sorts
are to be made by some means or another to approximate. This
is the ideal of the impatient administrator. A bad teacher will
aim at imposing his opinion, and turning out a set of pupils all
of whom will give the same definite answer on a doubtful point.
Mr. Bernard Shaw is said to hold that Troilus and Cressida is the
best of Shakespeare’s plays. Although I disagree with this opinion,
I should welcome it in a pupil as a sign of individuality; but most
teachers would not tolerate such an unorthodox view. Not only
teachers, but all commonplace persons in authority, desire in their
subordinates that kind of uniformity which makes their actions
easily predictable and never inconvenient. The result is that they
crush initiative and individuality when they can; and when they
cannot, they quarrel with it.
It is not one ideal for all men, but a separate ideal for each
separate man, that has to be realized, if possible. Every man has
it in his being to develop into something good or bad: there is
a best possible for him and a worst possible. His circumstances
will determine whether his capacities for good are developed
or crushed, and whether his bad impulses are strengthened or
gradually diverted into better channels.
But although we cannot set up in any detail an ideal of
character which is to be universally applicable—although we
cannot say, for instance, that all men ought to be industrious, or
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5
What are the evils that
the author identifies in
the last paragraph?
6
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self-sacrificing, or fond of music—there are some broad principles
which can be used to guide our estimates as to what is possible or
desirable.
We may distinguish two sorts of goods. There are goods in
regard to which individual possession is possible, and there are
goods in which all can share alike. The food and clothing of one
man is not the food and clothing of another; if the supply is
insufficient, what one man has is obtained at the expense of some
other man. This applies to material goods generally, and therefore
to the greater part of the present economic life of the world. On
the other hand, mental and spiritual goods do not belong to one
man to the exclusion of another. If one man knows a science,
that does not prevent others from knowing it; on the contrary, it
helps them to acquire the knowledge. If one man is a great artist
or poet, that does not prevent others from painting pictures or
writing poems, but helps to create the atmosphere in which such
things are possible. In such matters there is no possession, because
there is not a definite amount to be shared; any increase anywhere
tends to produce an increase everywhere. …
Few men seem to realize how many of the evils from
which we suffer are wholly unnecessary, and that they could be
abolished by a united effort within a few years. If a majority in
every civilized country so desired, we could, within twenty years,
abolish all abject poverty, eliminate half the illness in the world,
and the whole economic slavery which binds down nine tenths
of our population; we could fill the world with beauty and joy,
and secure the reign of universal peace. It is only because men
are indifferent that this is not achieved, only because imagination
is sluggish, and what always has been is regarded as what always
must be. With goodwill, generosity, intelligence, these things
could be brought about.
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Reread how the
author defines goods.
What kind of “goods”
are poems?
Lesson 9: Main Idea and Details
Answer the following questions.
1.
Which sentence BEST states the main
idea of the passage?
3.
A. We should encourage individual
thought and action.
A. “With goodwill, generosity,
intelligence, these things could be
brought about.”
B. Uniformity is the only way to
maintain a civilized society.
B. “Political ideals must be based upon
ideals for the individual life.”
C. Progress requires the willingness to
learn new things.
C. “To begin with, we do not want all
men to be alike.”
D. “We may distinguish two sorts
of goods.”
2.
According to the passage, what two types
of goods exist in the world?
A. goods that are easily attained and
goods that are harder to come by
B. goods that improve the world and
goods that destroy the world
C. goods that are shared and goods that
belong to one individual
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Duplicating any part of this book is prohibited by law.
D. goods that are expensive and goods
that are economical
5.
What is the main idea of paragraph 2?
D. Everyone has an opinion, but some
opinions are wrong.
4.
Which detail is subtly stated in
paragraph 2?
A. Most teachers do not think that
Troilus and Cressida is a great play.
B. Most students would rather read
Romeo and Juliet.
C. Bernard Shaw is a famous
playwright.
D. Troilus and Cressida is a
Shakespearean play.
According to the author, what would it take to make the world a better place?
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