16Hit1600
Information and IdeasHardMain idea about a tradition's purpose

Information and Ideas practice question

Every May the village children are sent out to 'beat the bounds' — to walk the parish boundary and strike its marker stones with sticks. The custom looks like play. It began as record-keeping: before maps, the surest way to preserve a boundary was to make sure the youngest generation had walked it and would remember where it ran.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

  1. A. A custom that looks like a game began as a way of preserving knowledge of the parish boundary.Correct
  2. B. The children damage the marker stones.
  3. C. The parish boundary has never been mapped.
  4. D. The custom was invented recently.

Answer: A. A custom that looks like a game began as a way of preserving knowledge of the parish boundary.

Looks like play; began as record-keeping before maps.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. The children damage the marker stones.
Striking the stones marks them, not damages them, and that is not the point.
C. The parish boundary has never been mapped.
'Before maps' implies maps came later.
D. The custom was invented recently.
It began before maps existed.

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