ShmoopTube

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We speak student!

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the stock market.

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It's like a roller coaster for your wallet.

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Check out the following passage.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right, which of the following best describes the main idea of this passage?

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And here are the potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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All right. Now, anyone who's lived through the last decade

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knows the unpleasant effects of an unstable stock market.

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But 1907 managed to avoid being a great depression

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or a great recession.

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So hooray for just having a panic, right?

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Now how do we best summarize this panic-inducing paragraph?

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Let's begin by getting rid of option A.

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The passage explains how, through a series of actions,

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the United States managed to avoid a great depression.

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The country wouldn't have any grapes of wrath for another 20 years.

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So for the time being, it was more like grapes of mild unpleasantness.

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So, clearly, the panic of 1907 was less disastrous than

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the crash of '29, not more.

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Option D is the next to go.

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Many banks and businesses may have, in fact, gone bankrupt.

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But the passage was mostly focused on how

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a worse crisis was avoided and how the U.S. managed to

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keep everything from going bankrupt.

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So this detail, while important, is not the main idea.

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Option C just isn't correct.

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If we look at the text, there's nothing to indicate J.P. Morgan established

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the Federal Reserve System. Instead, the passage

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focuses on how J.P. Morgan's actions helped end the panic

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and how, in turn, the Federal Reserve System was founded.

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Just our basic system of cause and effect.

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This information is best summed in option B.

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And thus, thanks to the heroic actions of J.P. Morgan and the Federal Reserve,

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our financial system has been as steady as a rock.

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Or something.

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[ horn honks ]

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