Title, Central Idea and Summary

In this article we will be dealing with the two parts of Reading Comprehension passage:

1)   Title/Central idea/Summary

2)   Style/ Tone of the passage


Title, Central Idea and Summary

Although all the three terms are related, there is a stark difference between them.


Title
Is usually a heading given to a passage. It should not be more than six to seven words, yet should be catchy. It is like the headlines of a newspaper report or article. If the headlines are attractive, the reader is forced to read further. Similarly, a title should act as a header, having key words and conveying the subject of the passage.

Remember! A title should cover the whole passage and not cater to any single paragraph.

Example: Let us try and give a title to the following passage.

Passage
Can you imagine ice that does not melt and is not wet? Then you can imagine dry ice. Dry ice is made by freezing a gas called carbon dioxide. Dry ice is quite different from ordinary ice, which is simply frozen water.

Dry ice was first manufactured in 1925. It has since fulfilled the fondest hopes of its inventor. It can be used for making artificial fog in the movies (when steam is passed over dry ice, a very dense vapour rises.), and for destroying insects in grain supplies. It takes up less space and is 142 degrees colder. Since it evaporates instead of melting, it is cleaner to use. For these reasons it is extremely popular, and many people prefer it to ordinary ice.

Dry ice is so cold that, if you touch it with your bare fingers, it will burn you! (143 words)

Suitable titles:
1)   Ice can Burn you!!
2)   Did you know ice does not melt?
3)   What is Dry ice?



Central Idea
Refers to the theme of the passage. In other words, central idea means what does the writer want to say? It should not be more than 15 to 20 words and at the same time should be able to explain the purpose of the passage.
Remember! Central idea should not be a sentence directly lifted from the passage.

Let us try to write the central idea of the following passage:

Passage
The best learning is that which occurs in adulthood. Our psychologists have demonstrated fairly conclusively that, for most people, the ability to learn is at its peak in the years from eighteen to forty-five. There is evidence to show that, even after forty five, learning power remains high it is exercised carefully and systematically. Adults can learn better than children; maturity is not a bar but an incentive to the person who wishes to develop his own potentialities. It is significant to recall, among other things, that virtually all the really great teachers, both religious and secular, have taught adults, not children. Naturally, the elementary school and the high school should do something more than keep children warm and dry. They can do little more, however, than prepare their pupils for the real education which maturity will bring. (137 words)

Central idea
Psychologists have found that age is and advantage for better learning. Adulthood gives a better understanding of things and makes one more capable of educating oneself. Hence age is not a curse but a boon when it comes to learning.



Summary
Is the gist of the passage. A passage can be as long as 1000 words or even more, but the summary should be precise, conveying the most important information. In simple words, summary should be brief but explicit.
Remember! One can always do away with facts and figures in a summary.

Let us try to write the summary of the following passage:

Passage
A polytheist always has favourites among the gods, determined by his own temperament, age and condition as well as his own interest, temporary or permanent. If it is true that everybody loves a lover, then Venus will be a popular deity with all. But from lovers she will elicit special devotion. In ancient Rome, when a young couple went out together to see a procession or other show, they would of course pay great respect to Venus, when her image appeared on the screen. Instead of saying, “Isn’t love wonderful?” they would say, “Great art thou, O Venus. “In a polytheistic society you could tell a good deal about a person’s frame of mind by the gods he favoured, so that to tell a girl you were trying to woo that you thought Venus overrated was hardly the way so win her heart. But in any case, a lovesick youth or maiden would be spontaneously supplicating Venus.

The Greeks like to present their deities in human form; it was natural to them to symbolize the gods as human being glorified, idealized. But this fact is also capable of misleading us. We might suppose that the ancients were really worshipping only themselves; that they were, like Narcissus beholding their own image in a pool, so that their worship was anthropocentric rather than theocentric. We are in danger of assuming that they were simply constructing the god in their own image. This is not necessarily so. The gods must always be symbolized in one form or another. To give them a human form is one way of doing this, technically called anthropomorphism (from the Greek anthropos, a man, and morphe, form), People of certain temperaments and within certain types of culture seem to be more inclined to it than are others. It is, however, more noticeable in other than in oneself, and those who affect to despise it are sometimes conspicuous for their addiction to it. A German one said an Englishman’s idea of God is an Englishman twelve feet tall. Such disparagement of anthropomorphism occurred in the ancient world, too. The Celts, for instance, despised Greek practice in this matter preferring to use animals and other such symbols. The Egyptians favoured more abstract and stylised symbols, among which a well-known example is the solar disk, a symbol of Ra, and the sun god.

Professor C. S. Lewis tells of an Oxford undergraduate he knew who, priggishly despising the conventional images of God, thought he was overcoming anthropomorphism by thinking of the Deity as infinite vapour or smoke. Of course even the bearded old man image can be a better symbol of Deity than anyone could be the image, even if these were psychologically possible, of an unlimited smog.
What is really characteristic of all polytheism, however, is not the worship of idols or humanity of forests; it is, rather, the worship of innumerable powers that is why they are to be worshipped. But the values conflict. The gods do not cooperate, so you have to play them off against each other. Suppose you want rain. You know of two gods, the dry-god who sends drought and the wet-god who sends rain. You do not suppose that you can just pray to the wet-god to get busy, and simply ignore the dry-god. If you do so, the latter may be offended, so that no matter how hard the wet-god tries to oblige you, the dry-god will do his best to wither everything. Because both gods are powerful you must take both into consideration, begging the wet-god to be generous and beseeching the dry-god to stay his hand. (612 words)

Summary 
The author introduces us to the concept of polytheism and anthropomorphism in the Greeks. Worshipping many Gods was a common feature and giving them human form was another. He also tell us about the other groups which favoured giving Gods other different forms than human shape. The passage is a good introduction to the various cults and practices of the ancient age. Gods then and gods now have always been powerful!!!!!


An interesting thing to note is that the title, central idea and summary grow in a pattern. There is a broadening of subject matter and words as we move through all three in the order mentioned. A title is small in terms of number of words and tells us very less about the passage, the central idea has more words than the title and tells us something more about the passage and lastly, the summary with the maximum number of words gives us the best idea about the passage.


And One More Example RC Passge

Well, as a matter of fact, they are! When certain kinds of monkeys are domesticated, they act just like human beings. They smoke cigars, drink beer, and look almost human when dressed in children’s clothing. If you invite them to dinner, they can sit quite comfortably in real chairs and use a knife and fork exactly as you do.

As with people, some monkeys are lazy, like those who sleep all day in the zoo, and some are industrious, like the little fellows who collect pennies for the organ grinder.

In speaking of monkeys, which act like human beings, mention should be made of the Brazilian monkey, which often balances himself on the top of a tree and makes a speech to the monkeys below him. Sometimes he even leads them in singing, first howling some weird notes, and then signalling his companions to join in the chorus. And you can bet they join in, enjoying it just as much as any boy or girl would! (166 words)

Let us try writing all the three for this passage.

Title: Monkey or Man??

Central Idea: Monkeys can be trained well to behave like human beings. They can even look like human beings in certain attire.

Summary: Monkeys if trained in a proper way can behave like human beings. They can have decent table manners, a good way of dressing and also leadership qualities. A certain breed of monkeys would do things making it difficult to differentiate between humans and them. This for sure shows similarities between the two breeds and the evolutionary link.


This is an introduction to the strategies on handling Reading Comprehension passages, For detail explanation of concepts, practice tests and faculty support, enroll into Complete CAT Course or Complete Verbal Ability Course.