DTW GED PREP

Identifying the Main Idea

The GED® Reasoning Through Language Arts test emphasizes critical reading, as outlined by the Common Core State Standards. While a few questions test basic reading skills, most questions focus on your ability to identify central ideas, interpret meaning, and evaluate supporting details.

What Is the Main Idea?

The main idea is the central point or message that the author wants to communicate. Sometimes, it is stated explicitly—usually in the topic sentence. In other cases, the main idea must be inferred by examining the supporting details.

Sample Practice Question

Read the passage and answer the question that follows:

A visit to the town of Williamsburg in Virginia is a trip into our colonial American past. This is because the people there live, dress, cook, and travel just as they did 300 years ago. There are no TV sets, cars, or tall apartment houses. Instead, there are small wooden or stone houses heated with wood stoves, and horses and wagons for travel. Williamsburg is a “theme” park in which volunteers re-create life as it was lived in colonial times. In the governor’s palace, visitors can watch men and women in colonial dress prepare and serve a supper just as it was done in 1725.

Question: Which sentence best expresses the main idea of the passage?

A. “A visit to the town of Williamsburg in Virginia is a trip into our colonial American past.”
B. “There are no TV sets, cars, or tall apartment houses.”
C. “Instead, there are small wooden or stone houses heated with wood stoves, and horses and wagons for travel.”
D. “In the governor’s palace, visitors can watch men and women in colonial dress prepare and serve a supper just as it was done in 1725.”

Correct Answer: A.
This sentence directly states what the passage is mostly about—it introduces the central idea that Williamsburg offers an experience of early American colonial life. The other choices provide supporting details that describe how this theme is brought to life.

Finding Details in a Text

On the GED® Reasoning Through Language Arts test, you will sometimes be asked to identify specific details in a passage. These questions assess your ability to locate factual information that directly supports or explains the main idea. To answer them correctly, it’s important to scan the text carefully for keywords or phrases related to the question.

Read the Passage and Answer the Question

1 Invisible ink has a long and interesting history. As early as the Middle Ages, people—especially lovers—used invisible ink to send secret messages. Over time, it became a valuable tool for spies. The oldest known type of invisible ink is lemon juice, although milk was also commonly used. Messages written in these substances became visible when the paper was heated.

2 In the past, some department stores sold diaries with specially coated pages. These diaries came with pens designed to write messages that would fade shortly after being written. The writing could only be revealed by spraying the pages with a special chemical known as Inspection Fluid.

3 The most advanced version of invisible ink was developed by the United States Navy. This ink was made with a unique chemical compound that could only be read by inserting the page into a machine that used powerful beams of light. Only someone with access to the machine could read the message.

Question:

Which of the following is described in the passage as the earliest form of invisible ink?

A. Blood
B. Lemon juice
C. Milk
D. Water

Correct Answer: B. Lemon juice

The passage clearly states that lemon juice is the oldest known invisible ink. Milk is also mentioned, but not as the earliest. The other options are not discussed in the passage.

Analyzing Implicit Main Ideas

Most texts on the GED® Reasoning Through Language Arts test will contain implicit main ideas, meaning the author will not state the main idea directly. Instead, you must determine the central idea based on the overall message and supporting details. These types of questions test your critical reading and inference skills.

Sample Passage and Question 1

1 In the 17th century, women were expected to obey their husbands, and men controlled all legal and public matters. A woman’s role was mostly limited to the home, though widows occasionally ran businesses. Women were excluded from professions and public roles—they could not serve in government or religious offices, and they were largely absent from the worlds of art and literature.

2 However, colonial America saw two well-known exceptions: Anne Hutchinson and Anne Bradstreet. Hutchinson became a public and controversial preacher in Rhode Island during the 1630s and continued preaching until her death in 1643. Bradstreet, a Massachusetts resident, had a book of poetry published in London in 1650 and is recognized as the first important American poet.

Question:

What is the main idea of this passage?

A. Women in colonial America were excluded from public life.
B. Wives were expected to obey their husbands in the 17th century.
C. Two women received public recognition in male-dominated colonial America.
D. Men controlled legal and public life in early America.

Correct Answer: C

Choices A, B, and D are important supporting details that describe the general status of women during the time. However, the central message of the passage is that two women—Hutchinson and Bradstreet—stood out by achieving public recognition despite restrictions, making Option C the correct main idea.

Sample Passage and Question 2

(Adapted from Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie)*

1 When the children ran away, Mr. Darling blamed himself for locking up Nana the dog, believing she had been wiser than he was. Though he was a simple man—almost childlike if not for his baldness—he had a strong sense of justice and courage. After reflecting deeply on the children’s disappearance, he crawled into Nana’s kennel. Despite his wife’s pleas, he replied, “No, my own one, this is the place for me.”

2 Out of remorse, he vowed not to leave the kennel until the children returned. This may have been extreme, but Mr. Darling always did things to the fullest or not at all. Once proud, he now humbly sat in the kennel each evening, talking with his wife about their children.

Question:

The main idea of this passage is that Mr. Darling felt deeply responsible for his children’s disappearance.
Which detail from the passage best supports this main idea?

A. He was a simple man.
B. He did things to excess.
C. He refused to leave the kennel.
D. He looked youthful except for his baldness.

Correct Answer: C

The main idea centers on Mr. Darling’s guilt and how it influenced his actions. While options A, B, and D offer background information, Option C directly shows the depth of his remorse—he physically placed himself in the kennel as an act of penance, reinforcing the main idea.

Making Inferences and Drawing Conclusions

One of the key skills assessed on the GED® Reasoning Through Language Arts test is the ability to make inferences and draw logical conclusions. These questions ask you to go beyond what is explicitly stated in a passage and use context clues and textual evidence to figure out what the author implies.

To infer means to make an educated guess based on details in the text.
To conclude means to form a judgment after considering the information presented.

Example of Inference in Context

If you read a passage about people swimming in the ocean, relaxing on the beach, and enjoying the weather, you might infer that the weather is warm and the ocean is calm—even if the passage doesn’t state that directly. Your conclusion is supported by the details provided, even though it’s not stated word-for-word.

GED-Style Practice Question

Directions: Read the passage below, then answer the question that follows.

1 The pitcher plant eats flies and other insects. It produces a sweet nectar that flies are attracted to. The nectar contains a drug that makes the fly disoriented and less likely to escape. The plant also has slippery spines that prevent the fly from crawling out. At the base of the plant’s pitcher-shaped leaves is a small pool of liquid. Any fly that slips and falls into the liquid will drown.

Question:

Based on the information in the passage, what can you reasonably infer?

A. Flies dislike the sweet liquid produced by pitcher plants.
B. Most flies escape from pitcher plants unharmed.
C. Flies are unlikely to escape once they enter a pitcher plant.
D. The pitcher plant helps flies survive in the wild.

Correct Answer: C

Explanation: The passage describes several features of the pitcher plant that make it effective at trapping flies—nectar that disorients, slippery spines, and drowning liquid. While the text does not say directly that flies can’t escape, we can infer from this information that flies are unlikely to escape once inside the plant.

• Option A is incorrect because the text says flies are attracted to the nectar.
• Option B contradicts the evidence.
• Option D is unsupported; in fact, the plant kills flies.
  Option C is the most logical conclusion.

Making Inferences and Identifying Textual Evidence

What is an Inference?

An inference is a logical conclusion you draw based on textual clues and your background knowledge. The GED® test often asks you to make an inference, then support it using evidence from the passage.

Think of an inference as reading between the lines — the author doesn’t say it directly, but you can reasonably figure it out from the details they provide.

Finding Supporting Evidence

Many GED® test questions go one step further: they present an inference and ask you to identify the sentence or phrase in the text that supports it. To succeed, you must:

1. Understand the inference.
2. Go back to the passage.
3. Identify the detail or sentence that justifies the inference.

GED-Style Practice – Nonfiction Passage

Directions: Read the passage below, then answer the question that follows.

1 Our modern diet includes a wide range of meat, fruits, and vegetables, providing protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. However, many people remain healthy on much more restricted diets.

2 For example, the Inuit people of the Far North traditionally survived on a diet of only fish and meat. Their land produced very few plants, so they relied entirely on animal-based foods. Despite this, they were strong and resistant to disease.

3 This puzzles many nutritionists because the Inuit diet lacked carbohydrates and plant-based nutrients. Scientists have proposed various theories, but no one knows for sure how they remained so healthy.

4 Today, many Inuit eat store-bought food, and they now suffer from the same health problems as other modern populations.

Question:
Based on the text, you can infer that nutritionists do not fully understand what makes a diet healthy. Which sentence best supports this inference?

A. “We obtain protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals from these foods.”
B. “Most nutritionists assume that such a diet is harmful to health.”
C. “Nutritionists have been puzzled by Inuit resistance to disease—their diet lacked the carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals we obtain from plants.”
D. “They eat store-bought foods rather than freshly caught seal meat and whale meat, and they suffer the same kinds of health problems as people in other modern societies.”

✅ Correct Answer: C

Why: This sentence directly supports the idea that nutritionists are puzzled by the health of the Inuit, despite their unusual diet. This confusion shows that experts may not fully understand the connection between diet and health.

GED-Style Practice – Fiction Passage

Directions: Read the following excerpt from Swiss Family Robinson and answer the question.

1 Early next morning, we went to our various jobs. My wife milked the goats, while we fed the animals. Then we all gathered wood to build our treehouse.
2 Fritz and I climbed the tree and prepared the branches. My wife tied planks to a rope, and we hauled them up to make the floor and walls. We hung hammocks from branches and stretched sailcloth for a roof.
3 We spent the rest of the day clearing the space and building furniture from leftover wood. That evening, Fritz and I collapsed from exhaustion, while my wife set the table for supper.

Question 1:
What can you conclude about the narrator?

A. He avoids giving tasks to others.
B. He is able to accomplish a lot with limited resources.
C. He is selfish about his personal goals.
D. He ignores his family’s contributions.

✅ Correct Answer: B

Why: The narrator describes creative solutions and resourceful use of animals and wood to build a home. He maximizes what little he has.

Question 2:
Which sentence best supports the inference that the family worked well together?

A. “My wife milked the goats and cow, while we gave the animals their food…”
B. “Fritz and I then climbed the tree and finished the preparations…”
C. “Our house was enclosed on three sides.”
D. “On the back side the great trunk protected us…”

✅ Correct Answer: A

Why: This sentence shows shared tasks and collaboration among all family members—clear evidence of teamwork.

Making Connections Between Ideas in a Text

Why This Skill Matters

On the GED® test, you’re often asked to:

• Understand how ideas build upon or contrast with one another.
• Track how one paragraph’s main idea relates to the next.
• Draw conclusions about the theme, argument, or message of a text.

Being able to connect ideas helps you understand how authors develop their message—and score better on comprehension questions.

Strategy: Track Paragraph-Level Main Ideas

To follow an author’s flow of thought:

1. Identify the main idea of each paragraph.
2. Ask how the new paragraph adds to, contrasts with, or deepens the previous one.
3. Use these connections to form a general understanding of the whole text.

Practice Passage: Early American Settlers

Directions: Read the following passage and then answer the questions.

Paragraph 1:
What were the people like who came to our country hundreds of years ago and settled in what would become the thirteen colonies? Why did they come here? What did they care about?

Paragraph 2:
Some settlers came for religious freedom. Others came to farm or to trade and make money. Most were poor, but at least they came willingly, hoping for opportunity.

Paragraph 3:
The poorest group, however, were enslaved Africans. Captured in tribal wars and sold to slave ships, they were forced to endure harsh Atlantic crossings and worked mainly in the South. By 1750, one in five Americans was a slave—far more than those seeking religious freedom or trade.

Paragraph 4:
Another group was indentured servants. These workers agreed to work for four years in exchange for passage to America. Though not slaves, they were often treated just as harshly.

Paragraph 5:
Some settlers arrived as punishment for crimes. Shipped mainly to Georgia, many later became hardworking, honest citizens.

Paragraph 6:
America was built by a wide variety of people. It’s time we recognize everyone—willing or unwilling—who contributed to the making of this nation.

Question 1:

How does the main idea of Paragraph 3 affect the development of the text?

A. It develops the idea that settlers came for religious freedom.
B. It shows that settlers came from different backgrounds.
C. It shows that not all people came willingly.
D. It emphasizes that settlers came from many places.

✅ Correct Answer: C

Why: Paragraph 3 introduces the idea that not everyone chose to come to the colonies—some were brought against their will. This adds a new dimension to the earlier focus on voluntary migration.

Question 2:

What does the passage suggest about America today?

A. It offers great economic opportunities.
B. It is a melting pot of different kinds of people.
C. Its role in history is still unknown.
D. Its history is similar to that of other countries.

✅ Correct Answer: B

Why: The text emphasizes the diversity of early settlers—from religious refugees to slaves and convicts. This diversity lays the foundation for the idea of America as a diverse nation today.

 Directions: Read the following text, which is excerpted from Lincoln by Emil Ludwig. Then answer the questions that follow.

   The post mastership seems to have become his main source of income; he holds it four years and finds it advantageous in many ways. He is appointed because people trust him, and because he can write and read so well; now he can enjoy a first reading of all the newspapers brought by the post-coach. That is an old privilege of western postmasters, and the subscriber is apt to expect, when he receives his journal, that the postmaster will be so obliging as to give him an abstract of the contents. The recipient of a letter, too, generally gets the postmaster to read it aloud to him; or, if he is one of the lucky ones who can read, he will not be such a curmudgeon as to keep all the news to himself. This is very agreeable to our anecdotalist and student of human nature; and as he goes his rounds, carrying all the undelivered letters in his hat, he gets to know folk more intimately.

       All this brings him day after day into touch with the varied thoughts of the people. He learns about classes, temperaments, grades of life, types of character; and during the next few years, in this remote settlement, he gains by direct observation such treasures of human experience as no formal process of education on the grand scale could ever have supplied.

       Still, he remains an omnivorous reader. All is grist that comes to his mill: besides the newspapers which pass through his hands as postmaster, he gets books from wayfarers, some of them light reading. When by a lucky chance an emigrant in a covered wagon wants to get rid of a barrel full of rubbish, Lincoln good-naturedly buys it. A few days later, emptying his new acquisition, he finds amid the plunder the four volumes of a famous work, Blackstone’s “Commentaries on the Laws of England,” the most notable law book of the day. This supplies him with a hundred important ideas and teaches him where to look for additions to his knowledge. He borrows more books from judges and lawyers and immerses himself in study, withdrawing for a time from his comrades.

       But he soon gets acquainted with a vagabond of artistic temperament, an inspired loafer who spends most of his time on the river bank with rod and line and knows by heart long passages of Shakespeare and Burns. He quotes them feelingly to Lincoln, and lends him the originals, thus opening new worlds to his friend. Lincoln, however, is most eager to get hold of history books. In them he discovers that the fathers of his country were more or less opposed to slavery; that Washington and Adams, Jefferson and Madison, Franklin and Hamilton—in their various ways the best men in the land, and some of them slave owners—wanted to check the spread of the system. Ever ready to store up anecdotes in his mind, he cannot fail to note and to remember that Washington would not have a runaway Negress hunted and recaptured, but left it to her free choice whether she would stay away or return.

       However, the reading of books and desultory conversations do not provide a living. The store, naturally, does not flourish, and the day comes when store and contents are seized by creditors. Berry decamps, and Lincoln has to shoulder the whole burden of debt, eleven hundreddollars in all. Daily bread can be earned readily enough, and in addition to such casual earnings he has his salary as postmaster. Enough for current expenses; but how on earth is he to free himself from the crushing load of his debts?

 8.   What can the reader conclude about Lincoln?

 A.   He loved learning.

 B.   He was competitive.

 C.   He was light hearted.

 D.   He longed for excitement.

 9.   Which quotation supports the idea that Lincoln was interested in the subject of slavery?

 A.   “He is appointed because people trust him, and because he can write and read so well; now he can enjoy a first reading of all the newspapers brought by the post-coach.”

 B.   “All is grist that comes to his mill: besides the newspapers which pass through his hands as postmaster, he gets books from wayfarers, some of them light reading.”

 C.   “In them he discovers that the fathers of his country were more or less opposed to slavery; that Washington and Adams, Jefferson and Madison, Franklin and Hamilton—in their various ways the best men in the land, and some of them slave owners—wanted to check the spread of the system.”

 D.   “The store, naturally, does not flourish, and the day comes when store and contents are seized by creditors.”

 10.  How does paragraph 4 develop the main idea of the text? It shows that Lincoln

 A.   did not like poetry.

 B.   was not very sociable.

 C.   was particular about whom he talked to.

 D.   was open to knowing all kinds of people.

11.  Based on the text, what generalization can be made? People who want to

 A.   be trusted do not read other people’s mail.

 B.   stand out must learn to keep away from trouble.

 C.   get ahead must work hard to learn what they need to know.

 D.   become successful must study how to be good businessmen.

 12.  Which detail supports the main idea?

 A.   Lincoln’s store closes.

 B.   Lincoln has a lot of debt.

 C.   Lincoln knew about slavery.

 D.   Lincoln obtains books to read.

Emil Ludwig’s “Lincoln” Passage Questions

8. What can the reader conclude about Lincoln?
✅ Answer: A. He loved learning.
Explanation:
The passage emphasizes Lincoln’s constant reading—of newspapers, books, and legal texts—and his engagement with people who broadened his intellectual horizons. His actions show a deep passion for self-education.

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9. Which quotation supports Lincoln’s interest in slavery?
✅ Answer: C. “In them he discovers that the fathers of his country… wanted to check the spread of the system.”
Explanation:
This sentence demonstrates that Lincoln not only read about the Founding Fathers’ views on slavery but also retained and reflected on this knowledge, showing genuine interest in the subject.

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10. How does paragraph 4 develop the main idea?
✅ Answer: D. was open to knowing all kinds of people.
Explanation:
Lincoln befriends a vagabond and learns Shakespeare and Burns from him. This shows that he did not discriminate against people based on social status and was willing to learn from anyone, reinforcing his openness and humility.

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11. What generalization can be made?
✅ Answer: C. get ahead must work hard to learn what they need to know.
Explanation:
Lincoln had little formal education but made the effort to self-educate through books, newspapers, and conversation. His personal progress came from diligence and self-initiative, supporting this generalization.

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12. Which detail supports the main idea?
✅ Answer: D. Lincoln obtains books to read.
Explanation:
The text discusses how Lincoln acquires books in unconventional ways and devotes himself to reading and learning. This supports the central theme of his intellectual curiosity and self-improvement.