Central Ideas at the 700-800 Level

Hard main-idea passages are built on a turn: they grant something real, then locate its limit. The main idea is always both halves — "X works, but at the wrong hours / in the wrong place / for a different reason" — and the thesis almost always lands in the final sentence with its hedges intact ("may," "suggests," "appears").

Every distractor belongs to one of five species. The Half-Keeper states only the concession or only the limit, often quoting the passage's first sentence — the appearance the passage exists to complicate. The Hedge-Inflator turns "may reflect" into "proves" or "has no effect"; a hedged passage never supports an absolute answer. The Prescriber converts description into advice ("cities should stop...") — hard passages diagnose, they don't prescribe. The True-But-Not-It is fully supported by the passage but drawn from a mechanism or background fact; truth is not the test, aboutness is. The Motive-Inventor assigns intent or emotion (evasion, resentment, fraud) that one planted phrase explicitly rules out — on literary items, find that phrase ("she was not sorry") before judging any choice.

Protocol: read the last sentence first, then verify with a full read, marking the pivot (but, however, yet). Eliminate by naming each choice's species. The survivor usually sounds the least impressive — precise, hedged, and a little boring. Target 60-75 seconds.