Lab Activity 37: Implied Main Ideas in Paragraphs

Chapter 8: Implied Main Ideas and Implied Central Ideas
Lab Activity 37: Implied Main Ideas in Paragraphs

Objective
To use supporting details to determine the implied main idea in paragraphs.

Step 2: Read the following paragraphs and indicate the implied main idea for each.

6. Thomas Jefferson once said that there has never been, nor ever will be, a people who are politically ignorant and free. It this is indeed the case, write Stephen Bennett and Eric Rademacher, then "we can legitimately wonder what the future holds if Xers remain as uninformed as they are about government and public affairs." While this may well be an overreaction, there definitely are important consequences when citizens lack political information. In What Americans Know About Politics and Why It Matters, Michael Delli Carpini and Scott Keeter make a strong case for the importance of staying informed about public affairs. Political knowledge, they argue: 1) fosters civic virtues, such as political tolerance; 2) helps citizens to identify what policies would truly benefit them and incorporate this information in their voting behavior; and 3) promotes active participation in politics. If you've been reading about the debate on health care reform, for example, you'll be able to understand proposed legislation on managed care and patient's rights; this knowledge will then help you identify and vote for candidates whose views agree with yours.

—Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry, Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy, 9th ed., pp. 3–4

What is the implied main idea of the paragraph?

a. To be a free people, we must be readers.

b. Refusing to stay informed about public affairs will allow others to enslave us.

c. Staying informed about government and public affairs benefits people and their communities.

d. The debate about health care is an important issue that everyone should consider.

7. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but declaring independence did not win the Revolution—it merely announced its beginning. John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, "You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil, blood, and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these states." Adams was right. The colonists seemed little match for the finest army in the world, whose size was nearly quadrupled by hired guns from the German state of Hesse and elsewhere. In 1775, the British had 8, 500 men stationed in the colonies and had hired nearly 30,000 mercenaries. Initially, the colonists had only 5,000 men in uniform, and their number waxed and waned as the war progressed. Nevertheless, in 1783, the American colonies won their war of independence.

—Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry, Government in America: People, Politics, and Policy, 9th ed., pp. 36–37

What is the implied main idea?

a. The struggle of the colonies for independence began with the Declaration of Independence and continued against difficult military odds until their victory over the British in 1783.

b. Writing about freedom is the key to winning freedom, and the colonists discovered that their eloquence was all they needed to defeat the British.

c. The British were able to enhance their own army with mercenaries who were not devoted to their cause but interested only in increasing their finances.

d. The size of the British army remained large, but the number of the colonists fighting varied because some men needed to go back home to tend to their farms.

8. Frontal lobe theory would lead to the prediction that low IQ and poor academic performance would be associated with criminality, although not equally so. Regarding intelligence, studies have found that the frontal lobes play a significant role in determining intelligence, although other parts of the brain are also involved. Furthermore, doing well in school has been shown to depend not only on intelligence, but also on planning ability, such as budgeting one's time and sustaining attention on complex tasks. In other words, academic performance appears to depend both on intelligence and on the ability to plan, the latter being almost exclusively a frontal lobe function. From this reasoning, frontal lobe theory implies that academic performance should be more strongly linked to low involvement in criminal/antisocial behavior than is true for intelligence. Research is largely consistent with this reasoning.

—Ellis and Walsh, Criminology: A Global Perspective, p. 421

What is the implied main idea?

a. To be a good student, you must have a high I.Q.

b. The frontal lobe theory states that good students are never criminals.

c. The frontal lobe is the only part of the brain that determines intelligence.

d. Frontal lobe theory states that low academic performance and criminality are related to the development of that part of the brain which is associated with reasoning.

9. There has already been a highly successful rock opera, Tommy. The musical Rent is a rock updating of the opera La Bohème. There have been ballets set to rock beats. In all probability a rock symphony is on the way, perhaps even a rock cantata for a chorus of a hundred singers. The musical form that so many people predicted would soon die a natural death is very much alive and has already contributed much to the humanities of today.

—Janaro and Altshuler, The Art of Being Human, 7th ed., p. 235

What is the implied main idea?

a. Many operas were the forerunner of popular Broadway plays.

b. The resurgence of musicals has prompted an interest in opera.

c. Rock is similar to opera in several ways.

d. Despite the predictions of many people, rock remains a viable musical form which has added much to our culture.

10. Men's and women's accounts of their lives confirm Levinson's description of the life course. They also reveal that early adulthood is the era of "greatest energy and abundance, contradiction and stress" (Levinson, 1986, p. 5). These years can bring rich satisfactions in love, sexuality, family life, occupational advancement, and realization of life goals. But they also involve serious decisions about marriage, children, work, and lifestyle before many people have the life experience to choose wisely.

—Berk, Development Through the Lifespan, 3rd ed., pp. 447–48

What is the implied main idea?

a. According to Levinson, early adulthood is a time of rich experiences as well as some overwhelming stress.

b. Early adulthood is a time of great energy and satisfaction.

c. Early adulthood is so stressful that the benefits are overshadowed by difficult life experiences.

d. If a person has not achieved occupational advancement and satisfaction in love by early adulthood, the chances of achieving them later are minimal.