About this video
This reading-comprehension walkthrough tests a main-point question about a passage on the New Zealand wool industry. The presenter stresses that the answer must cover the whole passage, which here is a problem plus the author's recommendations for restoring profitability. The presenter works through the choices, showing why A and B are details or too narrow, why C is only a background fact, and why D, which recommends improved farm management, captures the passage while E is off-topic.
You'll be able to
- state the main point of a passage in one sentence before looking at the choices
- explain why a choice that appears in the passage can still be wrong for a main-point question
- use the word should or a recommendation as a clue to the author's main point
Key words
- Main point
- The single idea that the whole passage is built around, not any one detail in it.
- Recommendation
- A suggested course of action the author argues for, such as better farm management.
- Too narrow
- A choice that covers only part of the passage and so cannot be the main point.
- Off-topic choice
- A choice that describes an idea the passage never really addresses.
Transcript
- [Instructor] Which one of the following most accurately expresses the main point of the passage? So, wondering what the main point of the passage is. Should go back, read the passage again. If you read the passage accurately, actively the first time you shouldn't need to go back and review the passage right now.
You should be able to say to yourself, okay what was the point of the whole passage and hopefully you remember that it was about New Zealand wool industry and the author was making specific recommendations about how the New Zealand wool industry can return to profitability through a number of suggestions that the author made.
So let's see if we can find that here in the choices. A, New Zealand wool growers should be encouraged to shift to other agricultural exports to maintain profitability. No, the author was not saying forget all about wool, it's time to move on. A is not the answer.
B, wool growing in New Zealand parallels agricultural practices worldwide in that it is becoming deeply divided between large professional operations and smaller family farms. Okay, well that was in the passage but is it the main point of the entire passage? No.
C, New Zealand's wool industry has been adversely affected by the development and improvement of synthetics. Again, that is in the passage, I think it was in the first paragraph, but is it the whole point? No, we're looking for a choice that encapsulates the entire passage, which is, here's a problem, the author is recommending how to solve it.
C is not the answer. Superior farm management should be encouraged among New Zealand's wool growers to revitalize the country's wool industry. Now that's starting to get at it, management practices was a big focus of the whole passage and other suggestions. So I like D, let's check out E and see whether it disqualifies itself.
E, the wool industry in New Zealand has put too much focus on increasing the efficiency of processing and has failed to address the issue of dwindling breeding stocks. Okay, that isn't the message of the whole passage either. D is really good for a couple of reasons.
One is that it encapsulates better then the others what the whole passage is about, what the point of the passage is. Another clue here is the, you know, the should be part of this answer. We were looking for a choice that was getting at the fact that the author making a set of recommendations in order to revitalize the country's wool industry.
We have our answer here, D.
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