SAT Central Ideas and Details practice questions

Question 1

Before the mid-fifteenth century, books in Europe were copied out by hand, a slow and costly process that kept them rare. Johannes Gutenberg's printing press, which used reusable metal type, changed that: a single press could produce in a day what a scribe might take months to copy. As printed books grew cheaper and more plentiful, reading spread far beyond the small circle that had once had access to it.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

Accepted Answer

By making books faster and cheaper to produce, Gutenberg's press helped reading reach a far wider public.

Answer

Gutenberg's press was the first machine ever built to make use of reusable parts.

Answer

Scribes in fifteenth-century Europe could not keep up with the demand for new books.

Answer

Hand-copied books were prized above printed ones for the craftsmanship they displayed.

Question 2

In the 1800s, ice was a major export from New England. Workers cut huge blocks from frozen ponds in winter, packed them in sawdust to slow melting, and shipped them as far as India. Insulated this way, a surprising share of the ice survived months at sea, bringing cold drinks and preserved food to places that had never known them.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

Accepted Answer

New England's ice was harvested and shipped great distances, reaching places that had previously lacked ice.

Answer

Ordinary sawdust turned out to be the best available material for insulating ice.

Answer

The ice was cut and gathered up only during the coldest of the winter months each year.

Answer

India imported far more goods overall than almost any other single country did.

Question 3

The Inca administered a vast empire without a system of writing as we usually define it. Instead, officials kept records on the quipu, a device of knotted cords in which the position, type, and color of each knot encoded information. Trained specialists could record on a quipu the contents of a storehouse, the size of a population, or the tribute a province owed — data the empire relied on, set down without a single written word.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

Accepted Answer

The Inca managed their empire's records through a knotted-cord system that stored information without conventional writing.

Answer

Only a few Inca officials were ever permitted to inspect the contents of the imperial storehouses.

Answer

The quipu was used mainly to record the history of the Inca empire in narrative form.

Answer

The Inca empire was too large to be governed effectively without a writing system.

SAT Central Ideas and Details practice questions

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