Overview Questions

Overview Questions

Lic. Máximo Blanco

​Main idea, Main topic, and Main purpose questions

​After almost every passage, the first question is an overview question about the main idea, main topic, or main purpose of a passage. The main idea questions ask you to identify the most important thought in the passage. Answer choices are complete sentences.

​Sample questions

​* What is the main ide aof the passage?

​* The primary idea of the passage is?

​* Which of the following best summarizes the author's main idea?

​Main idea, Main topic, and Main purpose questions

When there is not a single, readily identified main idea, main topic questions may be asked. These ask you what the passage is generally "about". Answer choices are noun phrases.

​Sample questions

​* The main topic of the passage is...

​* What does the passage mainly discuss?

​* The passage is primarily concerned with...

​Main idea, Main topic, and Main purpose questions

Main purpose questions ask WHY an author wrote a passage. The answer choices for these questions usually begin with infinitives.

​Sample questions

​* The author's purpose in writing is to...

​* What is the author's main purpose in the passage?

​* The main point of this passage is to...

​* Why did the author write the passage?

​Sample answers

​* To define...

​* To discuss...

​* To illustrate...

​* To distinguish between ___ and ___

​

​* To relate...

​* To propose...

​* To support the idea that...

​* To compare ___ and ___.

​TIP

​Don't answer the initial overview question about a passage until you have answered the other questions.

​

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wydDRf3XEb8&ab_channel=SnapLanguage​TIP

The correct answers for these type of questions correctly summarize the main points of the passage; they must be more general than any of the supporting ideas or details, but not so general than they include ideas outside the scope of the passages.

​Distractors

​Distractors for this type of question have one of these characteristics:

1. ​They are too specific.

2. ​They are too general.

3. ​They are incorrect according to the passage.

4. ​They are irrelevant (unrelated) to the main idea of the passage.

Other Overview Questions

2nd Part

​A number of other questions are asked that require an overall understanding of the passage. These are often the last question in a set of questions.

​TONE QUESTIONS ask you to determine the author's feelings about the topic by the language that he or she uses in writing the passage. Look for vocabulary that indicates if the author's feelings are positive, negative, or neutral.

Sample Questions:

• ​What tone does the author take in writing this passage?

• ​The tone of this passage could best be described as...

Sample Answer Choices:

• ​Positive

• ​Favorable

• ​Optimistic

• ​Amused

• ​Pleased

• Respectful

• ​Humorous

• ​Negative

• ​Critical

• ​Unfavorable... etc

Poll

If you read the following sentences in passages, would the tone of those passages most likely be POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE?

• That was just the beginning of a remarkable series of performances by this brilliant actress.

• Despite some minor problems, this device has a number of admirable features.

• This practice is a waste of time and money.

• At the time his poems were first published, they were very popular, but today most critics find them simplistic and rather uninteresting.

​ATTITUDE QUESTIONS...

​Attitude questions are very similar to tone questions. Again, you must understand the author's opinion. The language that the author uses will tell you what his or her position is.

Sample Questions:

• ​What is the author's attitude toward...

• ​The author's opinion of ___ is best described as...

• ​The author's attitude toward ___ could best be described as...

• ​How would the author probably feel about...

Poll

What is the author's attitude toward smoking on airplanes as expressed in the sentence below?

"Although some passengers may experience a slight discomfort from not smoking on long flights, their smoking endangers the health of all the passengers and crew"

• POSITIVE

• NEGATIVE