Question: Which of the following would be the best title for this passage? A. Why Permissive Parenting Is Problematic B. Negative Outcomes from Authoritarian Parenting C. Neither Authoritarian or Permissive: The Case for Parenting in the Middle D. Parenting in the Twenty-First Century Option A is not the correct answer to this question. You will notice that it does reflect information that was presented in the passage, but the problems with permissive parenting concern only part of the passage and not the entire passage, so this would not be the best title because it would ignore several important ideas in the passage. Similarly, option B is not correct because it also contains a description of part—but not all—of the passage. Option C is the best answer because it incorporates the key concepts found in the entire passage. The problem with option D is that it is too vague: it does not do nearly as good of a job as option C does in describing what the passage is actually about.
TYPE TWO: DETAILS Details are also known as supporting ideas. Remember that authors do not include information at random but rather selectively choose details in order to provide evidence for the main idea. A supporting idea might be a fact, a statistic, or a logical argument. When you are asked questions about details, the question might be worded in one of the following ways: Which fact is mentioned in the first passage but not in the second passage? Based on the passage, which of the following is true about decorative fans? The passage lists all of the following as habits of expert swimmers except for which one? The author claims that one of the results of increased screen time for toddlers is what? According to the passage, what is the result of increased sodium intake? As you can see from these sample questions, correctly answering detail questions will require you to read the passage closely.
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