#8 - Main Point

[valentina07]

I was between answer choices C and E for this question. Can you explain how I could've eliminated C?

[Jeff Wren]

Hi valentina,

When answering Reading Comp questions, especially Main Point questions, it is critical that you prephrase. Prephrasing is simply taking a few seconds to come up with your own answer before looking at the answer choices. This will help prevent you from being tempted by wrong answer choices.

When trying to prephrase the main point of a passage, imagine that the author was in front of you and you ask the author to convey the key idea/message of the passage in one sentence. Here, I imagine the author might say something such as "The conventional wisdom of incarcerating juveniles doesn't work and actually increases criminal behavior; instead juveniles should be rehabilitated without incarceration so that they can learn the values of our society."

I came up with this prephrase by focusing on the final paragraph of the passage, which is where the author weighs in on what should be done about the problem of juvenile delinquency.

With a solid prephrase such as the one above, you should be able to select Answer E as the closest match to your prephrase.

As for why Answer C is incorrect, there is nothing in the passage that discusses criminologists and law enforcement personnel having to cooperate. Perhaps more importantly, however, this answer misses the key point of the passage that juvenile delinquents should be rehabilitated rather than incarcerated.

As far as Answer C goes, incarceration may be perfectly fine. Remember that the passage only stated that "some criminologists" (line 8) believe that incarceration may have the perverse effect of increasing criminal behavior. For all we know, there may be other criminologists who recommend incarceration for juvenile delinquents, which would be the opposite of the author's main point.