16Hit1600
Information and IdeasVery hardMain idea: a letter lost only in a catalogue

Information and Ideas practice question

The archive's catalogue lists forty letters from the composer to his sister. Thirty-nine survive. The fortieth, catalogued in 1911, has not been seen since 1920, when it was lent to a biographer who died before returning it. His papers went to a university in another country, where, catalogued under his own name, the letter has sat unrecognised for a century.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

  1. A. The missing letter was never lost, only miscatalogued in another collection.Correct
  2. B. The composer wrote forty letters to his sister.
  3. C. The biographer stole the letter.
  4. D. The archive lost thirty-nine letters.

Answer: A. The missing letter was never lost, only miscatalogued in another collection.

Not lost, misfiled.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. The composer wrote forty letters to his sister.
A detail.
C. The biographer stole the letter.
He died before returning it.
D. The archive lost thirty-nine letters.
Thirty-nine survive.

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