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Information and IdeasHardIdentify main idea across a narrative of adaptation

Information and Ideas practice question

When the Kestrel Dance Collective began its tour of twelve rural arts centers, artistic director Amara Oyelaran expected simply to reproduce works from the company's New York season. Most of the borrowed stages, however, were half the depth of the company's home theater and lacked wings for offstage entrances. Oyelaran therefore rebuilt each piece so that dancers remained visible at the edges of the stage, waiting in full view rather than disappearing. Critics along the tour route praised the resulting sense of communal watchfulness. Back in New York the following year, the collective retained the device even in theaters where concealment was possible, and reviewers who had not followed the tour described the visible waiting as the company's bold new signature.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

  1. A. A practical adjustment forced on the company by unfamiliar stages became a lasting, deliberate feature of its choreography.Correct
  2. B. Oyelaran's New York choreography proved to be poorly suited to the tastes of rural audiences.
  3. C. Critics who reviewed the company on tour understood its work better than critics in New York did.
  4. D. Rural arts centers should be renovated so that touring companies can perform their repertoires without alteration.

Answer: A. A practical adjustment forced on the company by unfamiliar stages became a lasting, deliberate feature of its choreography.

The text traces one arc: shallow, wing-less stages forced Oyelaran to keep dancers visible; the device drew praise; the company then kept it voluntarily in New York, where it was read as a signature. Choice A states exactly that arc. B confuses a physical mismatch (stage dimensions) with an artistic mismatch (audience taste), which the text never mentions. C misreads the final sentence: it distinguishes reviewers by whether they saw the tour, not by their perceptiveness. D converts a description of venue limitations into a recommendation the text does not make; the passage presents the limitation as creatively productive, not as a problem to be fixed.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. Oyelaran's New York choreography proved to be poorly suited to the tastes of rural audiences.
The mismatch the text describes is physical — stages half as deep with no wings — not a mismatch with rural audiences' tastes, which the passage never mentions; in fact the touring critics praised the result.
C. Critics who reviewed the company on tour understood its work better than critics in New York did.
The last sentence distinguishes reviewers by whether they had followed the tour, not by how well they understood the work; it never ranks the two groups' insight.
D. Rural arts centers should be renovated so that touring companies can perform their repertoires without alteration.
The passage treats the shallow, wing-less stages as a constraint that produced something valuable, not as a problem needing repair — it makes no recommendation about renovating venues.

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