SAT Reading & Writing · Central Ideas and Details
A museum placed short labels beside several abstract paintings. Visitors who read the labels spent slightly longer looking at the works,…
A museum placed short labels beside several abstract paintings. Visitors who read the labels spent slightly longer looking at the works, but interviews showed that many still formed interpretations different from the labels’ descriptions. The labels therefore influenced attention without completely determining what viewers thought the paintings meant.
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
Which choice best states the main idea of the text?
Answer and explanation
Answer: A: Museum labels can affect how long visitors look at art without fully controlling their interpretations.
The passage establishes two things together: labels changed how long people looked, and those same viewers still reached varied interpretations. A is the only choice that holds both parts of that finding at once. B and C both describe outcomes the passage explicitly contradicts, since visitors did read the labels and formed varied, not single, interpretations. D draws an unsupported policy recommendation the passage never suggests.
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