Study the reading skill and work on the task below .

To grasp the main idea of a passage

One of the most essential reading skills is to grasp the main idea in a passage. The main idea of a passage is what it is about or the most significant idea a writer illustrates in an article. The writer may state the main idea in a sentence, which usually appears in the first paragraph or the last paragraph of the passage. Sometimes the main idea is not directly stated, it is implied instead.

Grasping the main idea enhances comprehension of the reading material as a whole, which helps, in a great way, to activate prior knowledge, predict the content and understand the passage between the lines.

1.Don’t skip the title or subtitles if there are any. The title often offers you the topic or the subject of the article. The subtitles are used to denote the subsections of an essay. They may start with numbers or letters or alternate the text styles like underline, bolds, or italics.

2.Pay special attention to the first paragraph. The first paragraph often tells you the main idea of the reading material.

3.It’s as important to stress the last paragraph. The last paragraph usually provides a summary of the whole passage and leaves the reader with some thoughts on the topic.

4.Focus on the first sentence of each paragraph. The first sentence of a paragraph, in most cases, is the topic sentence .

Directions: There are 2 passages in this section. Each passage is followed by some questions or unfinished statements. For each of them there are four choices marked A), B), C) and D). You should decide which is the best answer for each of the question .