Central Ideas and Details

SAT Reading and Writing· difficulty 3/5

The poems of Langston Hughes, central to the Harlem Renaissance, were sometimes dismissed by contemporary critics as too plain — too direct, too rooted in the rhythms of everyday Black speech. Later scholarship has reversed that judgment, treating Hughes's plainness as a deliberate aesthetic. The directness, scholars argue, was the achievement, not the absence of one.

Which choice best states the main idea of the text?

  • A

    Hughes's plainness, once seen as a flaw, is now understood as an intentional aesthetic accomplishment.

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  • B

    The Harlem Renaissance produced many poets.

  • C

    Critics have always agreed about Hughes's value.

  • D

    Hughes's poems were difficult to understand.

Explanation

The passage's central claim is the reversal in critical judgment — A. B is incidental; C and D contradict the text.

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