PSAT Reading Practice: Main Idea Questions

1. The following text is adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson’s 1888 book The Black Arrow—A Tale of the Two Roses:

One afternoon, the bell upon Tunstall Moat House was heard ringing at an unaccustomed hour. Far and near, in the forest and in the fields along the river, people began to desert their labors and hurry towards the sound. By the bridge, there was a stone cross upon a knoll, and here a group had collected—half a dozen women and one tall fellow in a russet smock—discussing what the bell betided. An express had gone through the hamlet an hour before, and drunk a pot of ale in the saddle, not daring to dismount for the hurry of his errand; but he had been ignorant himself of what was forward, and only bore sealed letters to Sir Oliver Oates who kept the Moat House in the master’s absence.

What is the main idea of the text?

• The church bell has called people together to learn happy news from a stranger.
  

• A messenger has brought news that is yet unknown, yet important enough for all the local people to be called together.
  

• C. The bell upon Tunstall Moat House is broken, causing it to ring at an unknown time. A group of people gather together to discuss the issue and the unknown solution.
  

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  . A sealed letter has arrived, causing the messenger to ring the bell at Tunstall Moat House and bring together all the people.

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The following text is adapted from Arthur Morrison’s novel The Dorrington Deed-Box:

Dorrington looked grave. “It’s really extraordinary,” he said, “most extraordinary; and it isn’t often that I call a thing extraordinary, with my experience. But it’s plain something must be done—something to gain time at any rate. We’re in the dark at present, of course, and I expect I shall have to fish about a little before I get at anything to go on. In the meantime, I think you must disappear as artfully as we can manage it.” He sat silent for a little while, thoughtfully tapping his forehead with his finger-tips. “I wonder,” he said presently, “whether or not those Italian fellows on the steamer are in it or not. I suppose you haven’t made yourself known anywhere, have you?” “Nowhere. As you know, you’ve been with me all the time”
What is the main idea of the text?

• The man Dorrington is speaking to has an extraordinary talent which has lead to him being chased by the Italians.
  

  
  

• Dorrington is in trouble and looking to gain time in which to solve a problem he is facing.

• The man to whom Dorrington is speaking is in some sort of mysterious trouble and Dorrington, in order to help, suggests that he disappear.
  

• Two fishing buddies hatch a plan to excel in their hobby, despite the odds being against them.

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3. The following text is adapted from Baroness Orczy’s The League of the Scarlet Pimpernel. In it, Madeleine Lannoy is promised help in finding her lost child.

Dante, in his wild imaginations of hell and of purgatory and fleeting glimpses of paradise, never put before us such a picture of a soul that was lost and found heaven, after a cycle of despair. Nor could Madeleine Lannoy ever explain her feelings at that moment, even to herself. To begin with, she could not quite grasp the reality of this ray of hope, which came to her at the darkest hour of her misery. She stared at the man before her as she would an ethereal vision; she fell on her knees and buried her face in her hands.

What is the main idea of the text?

• Dante’s picture of hell and redemption shows us what Madeleine Lannoy has suffered in her despair and grief for her child.
  

• The hope that Madeleine Lannoy feels is such a transformation for her that not even Dante’s literary move from hell to heaven could compare with the change.

• A man appears before Madeleine Lannoy, and, not knowing if he is from heaven or hell, she sinks to her knees and trembles in fear.
  

• Madeleine Lannoy, in her agony, despairs at ever finding her lost child, and compares her life to Dante’s inferno.

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4. The following text is adapted from John Buchan’s novel Mr. Standfast:

He leaned forward and tapped me on the knee. “I reverence the British Intelligence Service. Flies don’t settle on it to any considerable extent. It’s got a mighty fine mesh, but there’s one hole in that mesh, and it’s our job to mend it. There’s a high-powered brain in the game against us. I struck it a couple of years ago when I was hunting Dumba and Albert, and I thought it was in New York, but it wasn’t. I struck its working again at home last year and located its head office in Europe. So I tried Switzerland and Holland, but only bits of it were there. The center of the web where the old spider sits is right here in England, and for six months I’ve been shadowing that spider.”

What is the main idea of the text?

• A. There is an issue with the netting around the characters which is letting in spiders and other creatures.
  

• B. The British Intelligence Service, and the speaker specifically, is struggling to update its files on issues around the world.
  

• C. The speaker is trying to follow a covert operative who is continually moving through Europe, with his headquarters in England.
  

• D. The speaker is following and learning of an unknown threat which is centered in England and has reach in countries around the world.

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5. The following text is adapted from James Fenimore Cooper’s 1826 novel The Last of the Mohicans:

The route taken by Hawkeye lay across those sandy plains, relived by occasional valleys and swells of land, which had been traversed by their party on the morning of the same day, with the baffled Magua for their guide. The sun had now fallen low toward the distant mountains; and as their journey lay through the interminable forest, the heat was no longer oppressive. Their progress, in consequence, was proportionate; and long before the twilight gathered about them, they had made good many toilsome miles on their return.

What is the main idea of the text?

• A party of people undertakes a journey across many different terrains and finds that they can progress at a decent rate.
  

• Hawkeye alone travels across plains, valleys, and swells in search of a party of people who have become lost.
  

• Let by Magua, Hawkeye finds a route through the wilderness as a larger party of people make good time in their journey.
  

• Surrounded by wilderness, a group of people, led by their guide, struggles to reach the mountains across plains and valleys, and through a dense forest.

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6. The following text is adapted from Sir Walter Scott’s 1819 novel Ivanhoe

“Cedric is not her father,” replied the Prior, “and is but of remote relation: she is descended from higher blood than even he pretends to, and is but distantly connected with him by birth. Her guardian, however, he is, self-constituted as I believe; but his ward is as dear to him as if she were his own child.”

What is the main idea of the text?

• A. Cedric and the girl are not related to one another even though they love each other.
  

  
  

• B.  Cedric’s daughter is from a very noble family on her mother’s side and this separates her from him and his low birth.
  

• C. Cedric and his ward are only distantly related. But despite this and their difference in nobility, Cedric loves her as a daughter.
  

• D. Cedric’s ward is not his daughter and will not let her guardian forget that she is of nobler birth than he.

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7. The following text is adapted from George Eliot’s 1872 novel Middlemarch:

Dorothea trembled while she read this letter; then she fell on her knees, buried her face, and sobbed. She could not pray: under the rush of solemn emotion in which thoughts became vague and images floated uncertainly, she could but cast herself, with a childlike sense of reclining, in the lap of a divine consciousness which sustained her own. She remained in that attitude till it was time to dress for dinner.

What is the main idea of the text?

• Dorthea has read an upsetting letter which has caused her to fall to her knees and seek comfort in the divine.
  

  
  

• While reading a letter, Dorthea was overcome by emotion and loses her consciousness to grief and fear

• . Overcome by the contents of a letter Dorthea kneels in prayer of thanksgiving that she has been sustained through terrible news.
  

• Having fallen ill, Dorthea seeks comfort in her letters and in divine providence as she drifts through her consciousness.

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8. The following text is adapted from William Makepeace Thackeray’s 1848 novel Vanity Fair. In it the author discuss a woman who, despite already having a large house and many servants, desires to move up in society.

And so—guiltless very likely—she was writhing and pushing onward towards what they call “a position in society,” and the servants were pointing at her as lost and ruined. So you see Molly, the housemaid, of a morning, watching a spider in the doorpost lay his thread and laboriously crawl up it, until, tired of the sport, she raises her broom and sweeps away the thread and the artificer.

What is the main idea of the text?

• A. Molly, lost in dreams of a better position in society, slacks on the job, choosing to watch a spider instead of cleaning.
  

• B. The mistress of the house, in following her social aspirations, has lost the respect of her servants.
  

• C. Molly, instead of doing her work, spends her time watching spiders and mocking her employer.
  

• D. Desiring a spot in society, the mistress of the house allows her home to fall into disrepair and uncleanliness.

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9. The following text is adapted from Mark Twain’s 1882 novel The Prince and the Pauper:

“He must be the prince!  Will any be in all the land maintain there can be two, not of one blood and birth, so marvellously twinned?  And even were it so, ’twere yet a stranger miracle that chance should cast the one into the other’s place. Nay, ’tis folly, folly, folly!”

Presently he said— “Now were he impostor and called himself prince, look you that would be natural; that would be reasonable.  But lived ever an impostor yet, who, being called prince by the king, prince by the court, prince by all, denied his dignity and pleaded against his exaltation?  No!  By the soul of St. Swithin, no!  This is the true prince, gone mad!”

What is the main idea of the text?

• The boy who is called the prince is not the prince, but rather an imposter.
  

• The prince must have gone mad—no other explanation makes sense to the speaker.
  

• The speaker, the king, and the listener are all trying to determine if the boy in question is the prince.
  

• No one knows if the boy in question is the prince or an imposter.

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10. The following text is adapted from Charlotte Bronte’s 1849 novel Shirley: I did not find it easy to sketch Mr. Yorke’s person, but it is more difficult to indicate his mind. If you expect to be treated to a Perfection, reader, or even to a benevolent, philanthropic old gentleman in him, you are mistaken. He has spoken with some sense and with some good feeling to Mr. Moore, but you are not thence to conclude that he always spoke and thought justly and kindly.

What is the main idea of the text?

• The author struggles to describe Mr. Yorke’s personality and therefore gives up, leaving the reader with no clear picture of the man.
  

• Mr. Yorke is best know to the reader for how kindly he treated Mr. Moore. It therefore is best for the reader to understand Mr. Yorke as a kind man.
  

• The author feels he cannot well describe Mr. Yorke’s personality, but attempts to make sure that the reader knows that Yorke is not a kindly old gentlemen despite his actions toward Mr. Moore.
  

• Mr. Yorke, despite being known as a kind man for his actions toward Mr. Moore, is actually more than that. He is generous with his money, just, and kind toward all around him.

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