PARCC Reading Main Idea Practice Questions Story 9

9. What is the main idea of this passage?

A. The Marathon of the Sands race tests the limits of human endurance.

B. The runners run at their own paces.

C. The race causes the strong to stumble and the weak to not finish.

D. The seventh day is the hardest day of the race.

E. Every runner runs the race to find their human limits.

Correct! Wrong!

9. A: Testing human endurance limits is illustrated in this description of a punishing marathon. It never mentions runners running at their own paces (B). The race's challenges, and many not finishing (C) are details informing the main point. The seventh/last day is not the hardest (D); the fourth and fifth are identified as worst. (Regardless of accuracy, this is also a detail, not the main idea.) One, not every (E), runner is quoted as competing "to find my limits."