Proving it from the page

Word	What it means
Main idea	The one point a whole passage makes about its subject, stated in one sentence or built from the details.
Supporting detail	A fact, example or description that backs up the main idea.
Summary	The main idea and the key details, in your own words, in order, and much shorter. It reports; it never judges.
Inference	A conclusion the passage suggests but never states, from a clue in the text plus what you already know.
Interpretation	One step past inference: what a detail means, and why the writer put it there.
Evidence	The exact words in the passage that support your answer.
Literal	Meaning exactly what the words say, and nothing more.
Idiom	A phrase that means something different from its words. Break the ice has nothing to do with ice.
Analogy	A comparison showing how one thing works like another. Also a word puzzle: glove is to hand as sock is to foot.

On the first Saturday of every month, the basement of our public library becomes a repair café. People carry in toasters that no longer toast, bikes with slipping chains and jackets with broken zippers. The volunteers — a retired electrician, two high school students and a man who once fixed sewing machines — do not do the repairs. They show the owners how. Last year the café kept more than 1 200 kilograms of broken things out of the landfill. Still, most regulars say the best part is walking out knowing how to fix something.

The main idea. The café keeps things out of the landfill by teaching people to fix their own, and the teaching is what people value most. The electrician and the sewing machines are colour; the 1 200 kilograms and the last sentence are the point.

• “Once a month, a library basement becomes a repair café. People bring toasters, bikes and jackets. A retired electrician…” — a retelling: every detail, in order, nearly as long as the passage.
• “The repair café is a great idea that every town should copy.” — an opinion. A summary reports what the writer said; it does not judge it.
• “A monthly repair café at the library teaches people to fix their own broken things. It keeps a lot out of the landfill, but visitors value learning the skill most.” — a summary. The main idea first, the two details that matter, in new words, at about a third of the length.

Jordan's older brother left for university at the end of August. For two weeks, Jordan kept the door between their bedrooms shut, and he played his music loud enough that he could not hear how quiet the house had become. On the first cold night of October, he opened the door, took the old hockey blanket off his brother's bed and slept under it.

• An inference: Jordan misses his brother. The passage never says so, but he sleeps under his brother's blanket, and people keep close the things that belong to someone they miss.
• An interpretation: the door shows how Jordan handles missing him. Shut, it keeps out the empty room, the way the loud music keeps out the quiet. Open, it lets the empty room comfort him. Shut for two weeks, open by October: the change is the point.
• Too narrow: “Jordan is angry that his brother left.” It fits the shut door, but not the blanket.
• No clue at all: “Jordan wants to go to the same university.” Nothing points there. That is a guess, not an inference.

Which is the question asking for? “How does Jordan feel?” wants an inference. “What does the door suggest?” wants an interpretation: what the detail means, not just what it shows.

Mira had been on thin ice with Mr. Dhillon since the day the class frog escaped on her watch.

A model reading. There is no pond here, so the literal meaning makes no sense — the sign of an idiom. The phrase keeps the danger and drops the ice: Mira is one mistake from real trouble. On her watch is a second idiom: while she was in charge.

Idiom	In a sentence	It means
break the ice	Coach started the first practice with a game of tag to break the ice.	ease an awkward start
bite off more than you can chew	With three clubs and a paper route, Theo had bitten off more than he could chew.	take on more than you can handle
the ball is in your court	I've apologized twice. The ball is in your court now.	it is your turn to act

A glacier is a river in slow motion. It flows downhill, carves out its own valley and carries rock along with it — only far too slowly for anyone to watch it move.

An analogy in a passage explains the unfamiliar with the familiar. This one says glaciers flow, carve and carry like rivers, and its last words say where the comparison stops: speed.

An analogy question works the same way. Glove is to hand as sock is to … Put the first pair in a sentence — a glove covers a hand — and the same sentence finds the answer: a sock covers a foot. Shoe is tempting, but a sock covers a shoe is false. The relationship is the answer, not the topic.

• A summary that retells everything, or slips in your opinion.
• Choosing one detail as the main idea.
• An interpretation that fits one detail and ignores the rest.
• Reading an idiom literally.
• In an analogy, matching the topic instead of the relationship.