A central claim question tests whether you can tell what a writer says about the whole topic. First, name the topic and find any turn away from someone else’s view. When a letter uses images, ask what those images say about the writer’s experience rather than taking them as facts. Predict the point in one sentence that covers the text. Then check choices for the whole point, no more, since a true detail can leave the writer’s main claim out.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look for where Rutherford answers Boyd’s view. Which word signals that she’s moving away from his description?
- Hint 2
Put the talking heather, larks, and stones into everyday words. What do these images suggest about Rutherford’s experience of the landscape?
- Hint 3
Use the last sentence to test your summary. What does Rutherford say happens to someone who listens attentively?
Step-by-step
Find the point after the turn
Step 1Separate Boyd’s view from Rutherford’s
Rutherford answers Boyd’s lonely wilderness with I have found them teeming with conversation. Whose point does this central claim question ask for? Rutherford’s, so her reply to Boyd is the point to follow, while his description is the view she challenges.
- Step 2
Translate the images into a main idea
How can plants and stones have a conversation? The heather talks in purple sentences makes its color seem like speech, while the larks and stones extend that picture. Rutherford isn’t saying that plants and rocks literally talk; she’s showing how much an attentive walker has to take in. When the landscape insists upon being heard, nature seems like company. So our prediction is that the Highlands feel full of life and company to someone who pays attention.
- Step 3
Cross out claims the letter doesn’t support
Which claims can these images support? The claims about harsh climate and unusually aggressive wildlife go past the text, because Rutherford reports neither weather that stops research nor animals that threaten her. Profound sadness turns her point around: one has no chance to feel abandoned says an attentive walker won’t feel deserted.
- Step 4
Match the whole claim
Which choice gives Rutherford’s central claim about the Highlands? The phrase far less desolate means less empty and lonely, which is what her images suggest about the Highlands as a whole. Than commonly believed keeps the difference between Boyd’s description and her experience. Choice C.