SAT OwlQuestion bank / Central Ideas and Details
The following text is from an 1899 novel by Adelaide Prowse. Mrs. Cartwright is a widow who runs a boarding house.
Mrs. Cartwright's boarders often remarked that she seemed never to sleep. She was in the kitchen before the first of them rose and still at her ledger long after the last had gone up to bed. If anyone suggested she take a day's rest, she would laugh and say that rest was for people who could afford it. Yet she kept a vase of fresh flowers on the hall table every week of the year, and no boarder ever saw her pass it without pausing.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
Mrs. Cartwright works tirelessly, yet she makes room for a small source of beauty in her life.
Mrs. Cartwright is wealthy enough that she has no need to rest.
Mrs. Cartwright's boarders do not appreciate how hard she works.
Mrs. Cartwright neglects her ledger so that she can arrange flowers.
Show answer and explanation
Answer: A
Most of the passage stresses how hard Mrs. Cartwright works. The final sentence, beginning "Yet," adds that she keeps fresh flowers and always pauses to look at them. The main idea combines her constant work with this small pleasure, choice A.
Choice B reverses her remark that "rest was for people who could afford it," which implies she cannot afford to rest.
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