Virginia Communication and Literacy Assessment (VCLA) Practice Test

What type of sentence structure commonly includes the main idea of a passage?

1. A compound sentence

2. A simple sentence

3. An explicit statement

4. A persuasive sentence

The correct answer is: An explicit statement

The correct answer is an explicit statement because it clearly articulates the main idea or the central point of a passage. An explicit statement is often straightforward and leaves little room for ambiguity, making it easier for readers to understand the author's message. This type of sentence provides a definitive assertion or claim that encapsulates the primary focus of the text, allowing for a better grasp of the overall intention. While other sentence structures can convey important ideas, they do not necessarily serve to explicitly state the main point. For instance, a compound sentence consists of two or more independent clauses connected by conjunctions, which may provide additional information but can also complicate the primary message. A simple sentence has a subject and a predicate, potentially conveying a clear idea but not always the overall main idea of a more extensive passage. A persuasive sentence, meanwhile, aims to convince the reader of a particular viewpoint but does not inherently serve to state the main idea of the text clearly. Thus, an explicit statement is pivotal when summarizing the core message effectively.