← Information and Ideas
Information and Ideas: Central Ideas & Command of Evidence
These questions ask you to identify a passage's main point, or to find the specific piece of evidence (textual or in a graphic) that best supports a claim.
Strategy
For central-idea questions, look for a sentence that summarizes the WHOLE passage, not just one detail from it — wrong answers are often true but too narrow (only describe part of the passage) or too broad (go beyond what the passage actually supports).
For command-of-evidence questions, first restate the claim in your own words, then check each answer choice against exactly that claim — the right answer directly supports the specific claim, not just the general topic.
Key terms (1)
- Central idea
- The main point a passage as a whole is making, as opposed to a supporting detail.
Practice Quiz
Question 1 of 2Score so far: 0/0
Text: For decades, researchers assumed that octopuses, with their decentralized nervous systems, could not learn behaviors by observation. Recent experiments, however, show octopuses successfully copying tasks after watching another octopus perform them, suggesting a capacity for observational learning once thought unique to more socially complex animals.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?